Do you want to build your confidence in interview? Are you a Widening Participation undergraduate student? Would you like to take part in an exciting new research project run by the Career Zone in collaboration with the Centre for Social Mobility? 

If you answered yes to all the questions above, you could sign up to our new project exploring the use of Virtual Reality (VR) to build interview and presentation skill confidence.  

We know that interviews and can be a source of anxiety for students as they enter the recruitment process, and we want to explore how VR might help develop these skills and reduce nerves during the recruitment process. 

VR technology uses electronic eyewear to immerse the use in a computer simulated environment which can be interacted with through movement, touch, and speech. A real-world scenario can be recreated in VR allowing the user to observe demonstrations of a skill before practicing it themselves. This means that you could practice and develop your interview skills, and receive feedback, without having to have those early attempts be in front of a human.

We are offering you the opportunity to take part in training in using a VR headset before being immersed in a virtual environment in which you will practice and develop your interview skills. Our hope this that the VR environment will provide you with a safe space to practice and test your skills.  

As part of this research project, we will ask participants to share their subjective opinions on the usefulness and effectiveness of the VR-based skills training. We will use this information to help us understand the future potential of VR in our employability provision at the University and the implications of this offer for the wider sector.