Building Confidence through Empathetic Connection with Peers

A group of students at Ulster University were participating in a Job Readiness module that was fully online.

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Features of Active Peers AI Techology

- Survey Tool
- AI Matching Algorithm
- Custom Prompter
- Feedback Tool

- First, the participants filled out a survey to help break down their Job Readiness into areas they are good at and areas they want to work on, such as CV preparation, interview skills, and networking.

- Then, we used the matching algorithm to connect these job seekers based on the results of this survey. The matching mechanism connected people who are comfortable in one area to those who want to know more about that area. For instance, people who wanted to learn more about handling interviews were matched with people who were good at doing interviews. It is a simple but effective way to help people connect meaningfully and is much better than listening to a presentation on the "dos" and "don'ts" in an interview.

- Next, we gave the participants the peer learning prompter to give structure to their interactions and helped them think through their experiences. It can be difficult to know what to say when somebody asks you to share insights about a part of your life and so, we coach our participants through this with the "Experience Sharing" version of our Peer Learning Prompter. These questions are carefully curated to inspire meaningful conversations between the participants as they give that support to each other and give practical steps to each other to move forward.

- Finally, we gave the participants the feedback tool so that they can document their learnings. During the feedback session, we also pointed out the trends, emphasized that it is natural for people to feel anxious and overwhelmed when applying for jobs, and summarised the concrete steps they can follow to move forward. 

Results

While each member of the group shared two insights with each other, the key result from this occasion were the statements sent to us in feedback:

"It made my realise that other people are going through what I am going through." 

"I learned from other people's experiences and realised that other people have the same problems and that is not a failure if I don't succeed from the first trial."

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