October 2022 - Be Pro Be Proud is a national non-profit spearheading the movement to bring a new generation of pride, progress, and professionals to the skilled workforce in every state. As the current skilled workforce is at or near retirement age, Be Pro Be Proud hopes to change how High School students think about these job opportunities by using exciting, gamified VR experiences.

The Be Pro Be Proud mobile tour is delivered through a 53-foot trailer, filled with interactive experiences highlighting skilled trades. Groove Jones worked with the Be Pro Be Proud leadership team and state sponsors to create multiple VR experiences. Each VR experience highlights unique skill-based career jobs available within the state. The VR experiences are purposely designed to drive awareness about the specific job and get the students excited about a career by implementing gamification tactics.  Over 100,000 students have experienced the initiative. 

Play, Learn, See What You Can Earn

 The program highlights skilled labor jobs and what you could earn. Groove Jones created a series of VR experiences focusing on key jobs that give the student the chance to step into that job, challenge themselves with tasks, and see what they could have earned in the job. 

The VR experience is gamified and has a leveling system that allows students to play and gain skills, improve their scores and earn more. Players receive scores based on how quickly and accurately they perform each task within a challenge.

They are then given a ranking – Foreman, Journeyman, or Apprentice, which has an hourly pay grade. (Each pay grade is customized to the specific state where the student lives.) Their overall score, time, and ranking determine their overall score and total income for the job.

The job experiences focus on skills associated with Plumbing, HVAC, Electrical, Pest Control, and Carpentry. We transport students into a VR simulation world that could be from anywhere in the USA. Most activities occur in and around a digital High School football stadium. Students can choose from various challenges to play, learn, and see what they can earn. 

Behind the Production

The Groove Jones team developed the experiences in Unity and installed the software on Meta Quest 2 VR headsets. The entire VR program runs on the GrooveTech platform, a customizable VR platform we developed to deliver scaleable multi-level training programs. As new states are added to the program, we can easily compile a new custom-branded version.

To learn more about GrooveTech and how companies are leveraging it to tap into innovating their training and recruitment programs, visit – https://www.groovejones.com/custom-vr-training-systems

Read the source article here to see each skill module in more detail: https://www.groovejones.com/vr-experiences-to-recruit-next-generation-skilled-workforce/