A growing number of firms are offering aspiring young employees virtual work experience.
One company involved is doing this is Springpod who offer a variety of options, from construction to social care.
There a lot of big companies offering courses such as Amazon, but for the most part these 'courses' aren't up to much - just a few hours content amounting to little more than an overview of the career area, and a few quizzes.
The idea is to provide young people with a taste of what it's like to work in their chosen career sectors.
It's early dayz but I can see this being a massive growth area, going forwards!
Advantages and Disadvantages
This seems like a real win for those students who get onto these virtual courses. It seems like an efficient way to give students an insight into different careers. This would be impossible to replicate at scale through face to face work experience.
The courses are also short enough for students to be able to try several, whereas traditional work experience has only involved one placement.
It is also a possible win for the firms offering these courses. If they can incorporate some kind of assessment into the process they could use this as the first stage in their recruitment process.
In fact given the low effort required to create such course it seems like a no-brainer for companies to get involved with this!
Downsides
The cynic in me wonders about the distance between these virtual realities and the real lived experience of work.
It's very easy to make something seem more exciting than it is on an eight hour virtual taster course!
Whereas in reality point most jobs are going to involve stresses and strains and people you don't get on with.
These virtual experiences don't prepare you for that in the same way going into an actual office would.
I also wonder if poorer students might not just end up getting triaged, or dumped on these courses so colleges can just tick that work experience box without worrying about the efficacy of such courses.
Jury is out, for now...
It is early days with such courses, I can see that they might have some utility, but I am sceptical about how much genuine opportunity they are creating!
Posted Using InLeo Alpha
It is like offering a test drive on working .
I like it
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