Personality-driven careers guidance and #VR to ensure students have greater access to innovative careers guidance
Dev Clever and Lenovo partner to bring personality-driven careers guidance and VR to schools
Dev Clever, a leading developer of careers guidance and development platforms, has today announced a partnership with Lenovo, the world’s largest supplier of educational technology, that will ensure students across the UK’s 6,500 schools and colleges have greater access to innovative careers guidance.
Through the agreement, Dev Clever’s VICTAR and Launchpad platforms will be pre-installed on Lenovo VR Classroom devices and sold as a complete solution to schools and colleges across the UK, supporting the delivery of the mandated Gatsby Benchmarks for career guidance and the delivery of an embedded careers guidance programme within UK schools.
VICTAR (Virtual Interactive Careers Training & Apprenticeship Robot) is the world’s first interactive, virtual reality careers guidance experience, designed specifically to engage with school children and immerse them in impartial careers information as part of a school’s careers guidance programme.
It takes the user through an immersive, guided virtual reality journey to discover their personality and interests, where they can explore, through full 360-degree environments, the careers and training opportunities that suit them the most, as well as earning potential, predicted sector growth by region, and real-life professional examples.
Partnerships fuelling growth
Dev Clever and Lenovo will collaborate on a strategy that will enable them to roll out and centralise the complete solution globally via Lenovo’s dedicated global vertical sales team for education, commencing with North America from the 2nd Quarter of 2020.
The news follows Dev Clever’s exclusive partnership with World Skills UK that will see Launchpad & VICTAR used during WorldSkills LIVE, the UK’s largest annual apprenticeships, skills development and careers showcase event, attracting over 70,000 young people and education professionals from 21 to 23 November at NEC Birmingham.
Dev Clever announces exclusive partnership with WorldSkills LIVE to use #VR to solve UK skills gap – FE News #EDUCATION #EUVR: https://t.co/wkpX8Rq5Pj
— VR News from Europe (@XRnews_Europe) August 3, 2019
All students attending World Skills LIVE will be able to engage with Launchpad prior to attending the show, and schools will also be given the option to extend the learnings to more of their students by investing in Lenovo’s technology.
Commenting on the partnership, Christopher Jeffries, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Chairman of Dev Clever, said:
“Lenovo is well respected as an education technology provider, so this agreement truly underpins our strategy to scale our revolutionary careers guidance platform to educational institutions globally. Dev Clever will now have access to the infrastructure, routes to market and support to rollout our solution at scale across the UK and other territories, starting with North America next year. I am delighted to be partnering with a company that shares our excitement and commitment to global education, and to ultimately see how our technology is able to benefit more students globally and help them make the best career choice.”
Rich Henderson, Director, Global Education Solutions at Lenovo, said:
“At Lenovo, we are focused on introducing smarter technology for all – and it is very exciting to be partnering with DevClever to bring an immersive and engaging experience to students. Virtual Reality is so powerful at helping individuals see the world through a different lens and engaging youth in their future career choices will impact them for generations ahead.”
Dev Clever is made up of three parts:
- Educate, the world’s first immersive careers platform,
- Experience, which consists of virtual reality (VR) games, and
- Engage, which is gamification technology used in marketing campaigns by a number of national retailers, global companies and blue-chip brands.
About VICTAR & Launchpad
VICTAR (Virtual Interactive Careers Training & Apprenticeship Robot) is the world’s first interactive, virtual reality careers guidance experience, designed specifically to engage with school children and immerse them in impartial careers information as part of a school’s careers guidance programme.
VICTAR has been developed in parallel with Launchpad (Launchyourcareer.com), Dev Clever’s online careers platform that brings refreshing innovation to the careers education sector. Developed in conjunction with key partners and utilising credible resources, such as government backed Labour Market Information (LMI), VICTAR takes the young person through an immersive, guided virtual reality journey to discover their personality and interests. The user can then explore, through full 360-degree environments, the careers and training opportunities that suit them the most. Once they arrive at their chosen career, they can see statistics and information about the career such as how much they could earn, the predicted growth by region as well as video content of people in the role with insights into their work environments.
The careers output from VICTAR is automatically synchronised with Launchpad and the user is given a login to their personal careers dashboard where their selections are stored. The young person can then review these with their career’s advisor and parents. They can see the colleges, universities, apprenticeship providers and employers that offer the next step in their chosen career path. The personal dashboard allows the young person to keep up to date with information relating to their chosen career at the same time as allowing the school to keep a record of each individual pupil’s future choices, ensuring they remain focused on their career goal.
Launchpad & VICTAR have been in development for the past three and a half years, working in collaboration with students, schools, educational institutions, training providers and employers. This step change platform is aimed at tackling the critical national issue of bridging the skills gap, which the government estimates will cost the UK taxpayer £90bn per year by 2024. Our platforms are provided on a SaaS basis to our customers.
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