Pupils look at potential jobs with VR

In the "Your first day" project, pupils can use virtual reality glasses to explore apprenticeships and jobs.

VR is increasingly finding its way into various innovative schools. This year, the practical day for career guidance at the Gabriele-von-Bülow-Gymnasium in Tegel was very much to the students' taste. A number of young people are pacing back and forth in a classroom. Three of them are wearing VR goggles and headphones. "Wow, that's cool! I'm with the police right now. It's cool, isn't it?" says a pupil trying out a pair of goggles. His classmates laugh and film him with their mobile phones.

Virtual factory tour

The VR goggles come from "Dein erster Tag", a project for virtual company tours organised by the social enterprise "Schule Plus". The concept is simple: choose a profession, for example police officer, hotel manager or carer, put on VR glasses and watch the video. The video shows, explains and accompanies trainees in their work at the training company. With the glasses, it should feel as if you are right in the middle of the action. "This should give pupils a concrete impression of what a potential workplace looks like," says Jasmin Bildik, Managing Director of "Schule Plus". "We don't want to replace company visits as part of career guidance, but rather supplement them and show how broad the horizon of training occupations is." In many professional fields, it is difficult to organise company visits with pupils. "In a paint shop, for example, this is not possible without further ado due to the safety precautions," says Bildik. "What's more, teachers can often only make it to three or four companies with one class. With the VR glasses, we want to enable pupils to get a taste of 30 to 40 professions."

More videos are in the works

The videos are produced by "Dein erster Tag" in co-operation with the respective companies themselves. There are currently 16 videos, with 23 more in the pipeline. "The videos are educationally orientated and are designed to meet the students where they are at the moment. They should show whether the job matches the students' skills, interests and strengths," says Bildik.

At the practical day at Gabriele-von-Bülow-Gymnasium, the next batch of pupils is just entering the classroom. "Hello, what's being presented here?" asks a girl. There are displays on tables showing professions, with VR glasses and instructions next to them. Even before the team leader has finished explaining, the tenth-graders rush to the goggles. "I don't know what I want to be yet," says Lisa, who is watching a video of an apprenticeship in a drugstore. "I'm in the nail varnish department now! It's really interesting, it's fun," she says. Max, who already knows that he wants to join the police later, takes off his VR glasses. "Now I know exactly how it works. It's more vivid," he says.

Schools can borrow VR glasses

"Dein erster Tag" also sends boxes of VR goggles to schools all over Germany to borrow free of charge. "There are no technical hurdles, the goggles are child's play to use and we get consistently positive feedback from the schools," says spokeswoman Clara Höltermann.

Source: Tagesspiegel