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The InterLife Project: Researching the Potential of Art, Design and Virtual Worlds As a Vehicle for Assisting Young People with Key Life Changes and Transitions.

This paper is part of the ESRC Seminar Series: ‘Re-framing service delivery, professional practices and professional identities in UK careers work’ (http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/ier/research/semcomprfs). It is also part of a special issue of the British Journal of Guidance and Counselling edited by Jenny Bimrose, Laurie Cohen, John Arnold & Sally-Anne Barnes. It reports some of the findings of the interdisciplinary ‘Inter-Life’ Project (ESRC/EPSRC 2008-11, RES-139-25-0402). This project investigated virtual worlds and creative practices to support the acquisition of transition skills for young people in their management of important life events. The project used multi-method analyses of virtual environments in its development of Activity Theory to provide an analytical lens, and combined creative practices from Art and Design with informal learning in Education. Inter-Life http://tel.ioe.ac.uk/inter-life was part of the ESRC/EPSRC Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Programme, which itself was the final phase of the Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP). Impact details are available at http://www.tel.ac.uk/category/impact. The TEL Programme was featured at the Royal Society: http://tel.ioe.ac.uk/2012/11/tel-at-the-royal-society/ and a film of the Programme is also available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FBC496ggF0&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PL9FB06867C28D5F07. Careers work in the twenty-first century faces a challenge in terms of digital technologies. Given the rapidity of developments, technologies require evaluation in research and naturalistic settings. Educational virtual worlds and creative practices offer potential for careers and guidance work. This paper presents examples in which young people explore their feelings and ideas, plans and difficulties, while preparing for film-making. During this they develop important life transition skills. We argue that the power of virtual worlds and creative practices – to support emotional and cognitive engagement – could be utilised in practice settings. The paper concludes that these are serious candidates as digital tools in the careers guidance domain. This paper pushes forward international research on educational applications of virtual worlds into a more mature phase of investigation.