becaXR for Youth Employability in Vietnam

becaXR is the first application of Extended Reality to professionally empower poor youth by improving employability skills and career choices.

The problem:

Teachers and educators commit to improving the lives and opportunities of their students, but also are typically not provided with the full resources that they need to be able to deliver quality instruction in an interactive and experiential way. Particularly in the poorest areas, without such instruction students are not able to develop skills such as self-confidence and skill in communicating effectively and public speaking. Yet, these are among the skills that they need in order to secure and succeed in decent employment. 

According to the ILO, there are “71 million unemployed youth worldwide and 156 million young workers living in poverty: youth employment remains a global challenge.” Youth aged 15-24 are three times more likely to be unemployed than adults, but at the same time have generally higher education levels than adults in their communities. In large and growing economies such as Vietnam, a larger proportion of the population is 15-24 years old and seeking jobs for the first time. 

Unfortunately, there is a significant mismatch between the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that youth acquire in schools and what many employers say they need. This skills gap for entry-level workers is even more pronounced for deprived youth who have dropped out before graduating from high school. This mismatch and misunderstanding of job requirements can lead to high churn of new hires, and a decrease in employers’ trust that a young person will be a good employee. Aided by ICTs, we see a way to help teachers break this cycle.

The solution:  

becaXR – which stands for “better careers through extended reality” – is a first of its kind application to bring the classroom to life in order to help poor vocational school students and out of school youth visualize career opportunities and improve the skills they would need to be successful in that path. becaXR uses augmented video and virtual 360 environments for users to practice and reinforce communications skills and confidence useful for workforce success, and envision themselves in jobs and careers so they can make better career choices.

Through a user-friendly application that can be used on the lowest-end Android smartphones, becaXR will allow young people, teachers, and community members to overcome barriers such as location, transportation costs, and mobility issues, to be instantly transported into virtual scenes that can help further their vocational education and transferrable skills. The first iteration of the platform is structured around three core use cases, identified through workshops with sample users in Vietnam. 

• Enhanced skill acquisition for youth
  • becaXR allows youth to engage with instructional content in fun, new ways, be that understanding livelihoods options or practicing specific skills. 

• Improved student engagement 
  • The blend of augmented video, avatars, and virtual 360 environments appeal to young people increasingly attracted to new technology. 

• Effective transition to work 
  • becaXR can provide both an immersive virtual entry into the workplace and an understanding of career pathways to mitigate mismatches between expectation and reality.

The becaXR platform is a new application of Extended Reality software, using the technology for the first time to serve poor young people for employability support. It is a digital enabler that maximizes engagement with curriculum through leading-edge experiential learning techniques for increased stimulation, decreased teacher burden, and enhanced knowledge retention and skills reinforcement. Online and offline functionality allows for future reach to both in-school and out of school youth who do not have consistent access to the internet, or for whom mobile data is prohibitively expensive.  

The use of virtual and augmented reality allows us to create a digital simulation of workplaces and employment-related settings closer to reality than traditional training programs. Use of this technology helps vocational schools to provide a workplace experience without the cost of physical replication. Additionally, the technology creates a customizable journey for students, which is a task otherwise beyond the reach of most teachers with dozens of students in their classes. By exposing students to technology in the classroom, this platform can make them more comfortable with using technology for future learning needs and job performance. 

The goal of this solution over the next 12 months is to finish the development of the prototype application, currently scheduled for late August, 2018, and pilot it in Save the Children’s ongoing vocational training programs as a supplemental learning aid. As a pilot, the priority during this period will be on evaluating its efficacy as a solution for youth employability training. Thisevaluation will measure platform usage as well as skill and knowledge acquisition, and job placement. Learnings from the evaluation will be applied in order to understand opportunity for reuse in other contexts.

Following validation and feedback from the pilot, a scaling plan will be developed. This will prioritize growth related to incorporation of new thematic and career areas, localization for appropriateness to other communities, and the development of functionality that allows for greater self-learning for out-of-school youth. By 2020 we will serve at least 1,500 youth in Vietnam through becaXR and test an adapted version of the platform in at least one additional country. 

Over the next 12 months, beneficiaries will predominately be enrolled in vocational schools that are part of the Skills to Succeed program. The becaXR platform will be integrated as a supplemental component of their curricula, and facilitated by their current teachers. Additionally, the platform will be available through the Apple and Google Play app stores. While we will not be conducting any public advertising of the platform within the next 12 months, the functionality will be available to anyone who downloads the application. Future stages may include steps to support use of the platform by the broader population. 

The solution is still in the prototype stage.

The pilot of the becaXR platform will serve 500 at-risk youth aged 15-24 who attend vocational schools in Vietnam. Over 3 years, we plan to reach 1,500 users. We expect the impact to be that at-risk youth are able to quickly get a job of their choice after reaching legal employment age and completing vocational training.

Effects will be evaluated by structuring a randomized control trial (RCT) of youth in programs that are using becaXR and others in programs without the platform. Qualitative data will supplement the quantitative trial data to better understand the dynamics that lead to these effects. 

The becaXR project is implemented by Save the Children’s Skills to Succeed (S2S) Program. The four-person core team for the project is comprised of global thematic experts in education and youth employment, experienced professionals from the communities where the project is being implemented, and technical experts in Extended Reality technology and media creation. This broad partnership combines more than 20 years of experience in software development, ICT for International Development (ICT4D) project management, and youth employment.  

The becaXR tool is being built as a platform that is easy to scale and adapt with regard to user experiences, use cases, and digital content. Moreover, the platform will be built to ensure it can be reutilized and expanded geographically with minimal development. 

The Save the Children Alliance is present in 120 countriesacross the world. Save the Children US will make the platform available at-cost for adaptation and reuse by other Alliance members and other organizations with a similar vision. We will also pursue opportunities to release ownership of forks where there is opportunity for sustainability.  

While development of the becaXR solution is funded by a current grant and supported by in-kind donations, we are eager to find additional sources of support to contribute to the depth of the solution and sustainability following the conclusion of the current grant. Desired support includes financial support for growing the solution through new content, use cases, and locations, as well as helpful partnerships with others who have an interest in leveraging innovation to improve lives. 

An anticipated key barrier for the becaXR platform is that of means for scaling the solution beyond the current application in Vietnam. In order for this to happen, we will require financial resources for software adaptation and content localization. Additionally, partnerships and other forms of technical support are important for our ability to grow efficiently.