“VReach” Virtual Reality Career Training Program Fosters Career Planning For Autistic Patients
Click here back to New Life E-Newsletter April 2023
The United Nations General Assembly officially declared 2 April as World Autism Awareness Day to raise awareness of autism in the general community.
Teenagers with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often suffer from ineffective communication and behavioral rigidity in their daily life. Such difficulties undermine their ability to develop social connections during their study and adapt to new circumstantial changes at the workplace, subsequently causing further emotional problems, which could in turn affect their academic and work performance.
Thanks to the generosity of The Koo Foundation, in 2020, New Life launched the "VReach” Virtual Reality Career Training Program dedicated to fostering career planning for Autistic patients. The two-year program leverages Virtual Reality technology in the training materials and it adopts innovative teaching methods to enhance participants’ workplace communications skills to prepare them for their future careers and development.
Eleven Workplace Scenarios
In response to participants’ needs along different development stages, VReach provides to three target groups: High school, Tertiary education as well as unemployed and employed with four training episodes below:
- Self-awareness
- Job hunting skills
- Workplace communication skills and problem-solving
- Emotion management
Leveraging 11 workplace scenarios, which include taking interviews, handling complaints, responding to unreasonable requests and attending meetings, VReach’s instructors will illustrate different communication approaches and potential outcomes to the participants, thus enhancing their skills in handling actual circumstances.
Virtual Reality experience at various workplaces such as convenience stores, cafes, kitchens and warehouses is also available to foster the participants’ work practice, execution and understanding of work command.
The use of VR technology allows the participants to practice repeatedly and instructors can then provide instant feedback and suggestions for improvement. This helps Autistic patients to better prepare for their everyday work.
"Autistic patients are more likely to feel anxious and ashamed of their mistakes and get cold feet under pressure. The use of VR experience devices can help reduce their stress and anxiety. They can be more concentrated without external disturbance.”
—Mr WONG Chin-keung, Social Welfare Officer of New Life
The immersive training with VR can better equip the participants with necessary skills.
"Each scenario comprises five to six variations, with lively body language and conversations from professional actors, helping the participants be more engaged in a lifelike situation. For instance, participants tend to sit up straight and be more focused during our VR interviews. Practice makes perfect and abundant practice allows them to be more confident in the real situation.”
—Mr Kale Chen, Project Officer of V-Reach
Previous participants’ sharing
Michael, whose education focuses on Hotel Operation and Management, has yet to gain working experience before taking part in school internships. As a result, he once got disoriented about his career development.
"VR practice relieved me from the stress of facing a real person and allowed me to get to know the potential workplace situations and learn to solve the problems. With all the training, I was able to talk to my coworkers at work and they were happy to address my concerns.”
—Michael
Tin-yan, presently a barista, once lost her confidence after an unsuccessful job application at a cafe a few years ago. However, she now has no trouble communicating with others.
"VR practice not only taught me the skills in interviews and day-to-day communications but also made me realise that even when we have arguments between colleagues, we can solve the conflicts and understand each other’s thoughts, which could be another way to develop a closer relationship.”
—Tin-yan
Research Findings
Our research indicates that among participants who finished the group training, about 90% of them are able to identify their development path; 21% would continue their study; 65% can acquire an ideal job opportunity and sustain employment for over three to six months.
New Life has created a training booklet with summaries of experiences obtained from the training. Program results and observations have been documented to share with our industry peers as a reference for any upcoming VR practices for the Autistic patients.
Please visit the website of iSPA-Support Center for Persons with Autism for further details about New Life’s services for Autistic patients: https://spahk.nlpra.org.hk