Students across the Golden Triangle will soon have the opportunity to learn how to properly change oil, use a circular saw and even how to operate a fire extinguisher from the comfort of a traditional classroom.
Middle school through adult education students can soon explore new careers and train for them in a safe and controlled environment through virtual reality.
Mississippi State University Research and Curriculum Unit received a $1.49 million Appalachian Regional Commission Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization Initiative grant to provide virtual reality headsets and education software to prepare students for the workforce.
Educators from six public school districts gathered at the East Mississippi Community College Communiversity on Monday afternoon to learn how VR can be used for career exploration and how to operate the headsets and remotes with them.
“We need to go ahead and get ahead of the curve,” said RCU Director Betsey Smith. “… We want to help you recruit students into career technical education. … This region is where we wanted to start and hopefully see some expansion of this in the future.”
The grant partners MSU with Columbus Municipal School District, Kemper County School District, Lowndes County School District, Noxubee County School District, Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District, West Point Consolidated School District, EMCC and industry leaders like PACCAR and International Paper to help develop the next generation of the workforce.
Representatives from Transfr, the company supplying the VR workforce training, spoke about the offerings of the VR platform and how to work the headset and its remotes.
There are two offerings — career exploration and skills training for more specialized career technical education courses in high school and post-secondary education.
During a student’s career exploration session, a virtual coach will be there to guide them through a module of their choosing in a chosen career field. At the end of their session, they will be prompted to use the skills they learned to complete a virtual hands-on assessment, on which they must score at least 90 percent to pass. After the session is complete, they will be asked if the career field interests them.
The option for sessions in VR skills training will be infused in high schools for their CTE programs and at EMCC, both at the main campus in Scooba and in Lowndes County.
Skills training will be offered in fields such as manufacturing, health care, engineering, welding and culinary arts.
The project aims to increase enrollment in secondary education CTE courses by 5 percent and have 80 percent passing industry-recognized credentialing exams at EMCC, with at least 70 percent accepting job placement.
O.P. McCubbins, lead evaluator and assistant professor at MSU, said the project will evaluate and measure impact by number of student participation in target programs, job training completers, number of job training completers accepting job placement, unemployment rate after implementation and number of community college students receiving credentials in career fields after the trainings.
“Impact is what we’re most concerned with,” McCubbins said. “… Most of our data is going to be collected from readily available stuff, but there are going to be times we call on you (school district officials) to help give us some information.”
In the next few months, the VR sets will make their way into the schools as the RCU begins distribution to the six districts middle and high schools. Staff from the RCU will provide training for the teachers on how to use sets and how to check the data.
Data will show how well students did on the post-activity assessment and whether the students were interested in the career, which is a prompt at the end of the module.
Stefanie Jones, LCSD assistant superintendent, said it will be first implemented at the middle school level for students to learn about different career pathways before going into high school.
“I’m very excited for the students,” Jones said. “It takes ‘hands-on’ to a different level, and with kids right now, they’ve probably all had VR before. … I think it’s going to aid in that (post-secondary education) transition. I like how the workforce in the area pushes using ecosystems. It just kind of shows we’re not operating in silos. You can get your foundation here, and you can transition on to whatever tech school or other school, like the Communiversity. I think we have great partnerships here in Lowndes County, so we’re able to work those agreements to the benefit of the students and eventually the workforce.”
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.