On Wednesday, November 2, The Learning Partnership’s Take Our Kids to Work Day celebrated 22 years as the largest and best known career readiness program, with students and employers participating across Canada. Take Our Kids to Work Day was created to support and enhance experiential learning, career exploration and career readiness among Canadian public school students. The day gives students an opportunity to connect with people in the workforce, which helps them to explore options and adequately make decisions when it comes to career planning. It is also designed to bridge gaps between business and education sectors, allowing employers to share knowledge, experience and advice around education, career choices and relevant skills required in today’s workplace.
This year, The Learning Partnership launched a series of Virtual Reality Workplace Experiences. These 360 virtual reality videos take students and teachers on an immersive tour of some of the most fascinating workplaces across the country and is designed to help students explore career opportunities in a variety of interesting fields. With these videos, students anywhere have the ability to gain an interactive behind-the-scenes view of many workplaces that they might otherwise not have an opportunity visit, while hearing from employees about their work experiences in a particular industry or profession. Each 360° video can be viewed online via YouTube from any computer with Internet access. Users are also able to experience immersive viewing on their mobile phones using affordable virtual reality headsets such as Google Cardboard.
With the use of VR technology, students are no longer limited to experiencing jobs available in their geographic area. The Learning Partnership’s growing library of immersive videos allows them to explore a variety of careers and workplaces from any location, and supplement teaching resources as they make informed decisions when it comes to their career planning. With the technology readily available, virtual reality has become a reality.
Albert Ko is The Learning Partnership’s National Program Manager for the Take Our Kids to Work™ program. His areas of expertise include policies involving education to employment, career education curriculum, integrating technology in education, and labour market and macroeconomic issues.
To learn more you can contact Albert at: ako@thelearningpartnership.ca
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