Students across Kentucky have been exploring career pathways through virtual reality, but not all students have been able to fully experience the technology until now.

The Kentucky Department of Education's Office of Special Education and Early Learning is open three area technology centers that let students with disabilities experience different career settings.

And today's Education Matters segment.

We visited one of those centers located in Wayne County.

This really came about through the American Rescue Plan and the Covid 19 pandemic.

It was our Office of Special Education and Early Learning that understood a lot of the challenges that existed for all students, including students with disabilities.

And so, one of the things that we were challenged to do is to address the impact that the pandemic had on supporting students with disabilities and transitioning into post-school environments like college or career or even independent living environments.

Do have some students that have IEPs.

And, so it is good for some of those students because it may give them an opportunity to do something they may not be able to, or experiences that may not be able to experience in what we're currently able to offer students, right at 100 different experiences, including three customized experiences that are unique to Kentucky, but just to name a few.

Students can, transport themselves, in an immersive way on top of a wind turbine.

Or they could see themselves and experience life, within the career field of A911 call operator.

So there's a lot of opportunities on there that these students are not going to get to see on a day to day basis.

Even things that are located in this county, they may not have access to it until they're hired into a facility or, you know, they may take a job that they get there and it may not be what they were expecting.

So this gives them a little bit of insight into the field through the VR, I have been able to learn so much about so many different types of jobs within the industrial maintenance field, because the industrial maintenance field is a very vast open field.

I mean, you've got electricians that work on houses, people that work in factories, work on robots.

So for someone like me, I had no idea what welding, how it worked or what it did.

So getting onto that VR, it kind of showed me, okay, this is sort of what to expect.

It's a lot different than what we do.

As in, there's a lot of more heat and sparks and just it's different.

But it's like, okay, I know the basics.

I know I need to move my, rod at this angle, so it's just really neat.

They love it.

It's just something different.

It's, out of the norm.

It's quite a creative experience.

And, you know, honestly, we're letting some kids go see things that they wouldn't they'll probably never get to see in real life.

This just gives you gives the students some confidence in what they're going to do.

I know some of the other classes have it to where they can look at different careers and to for them, it's kind of like see what someone would see in that.

So it kind of gives them some confidence in making a decision.

And through the VR as well, I've been able to practice a bunch of skills that I use in the lab that I can practice on VR before I have to do it for a grade or for a test.

So it's really nice to be able to get that little bit of extra practice just helping kids find their way in life, you know?

You know, even if they go, they do the lineman experience and they say, oh, no, mean I'm out.

No, that's not for me.

You know, that's still positive because they moved in a direction.

We talked about post-secondary readiness.

But what we really want is post-secondary success for all students, including students with disabilities.

And so what immersive virtual reality allows us to do is just really inform students into what's out there, that there might be opportunities beyond their immediate community, or within their immediate community.

But really having students understand the abundance of opportunities that are available to them in their life, and help them realize that they can achieve those, career goals.

Students can take part in three virtual experiences from Kentucky Connelly Bottom Resort in Monticello, Clarion Construction and Tompkins Ville, and Ingram Barge in Paducah.