A GenAI-supported job interview training robot for young adults with special education needs.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Employment opportunities for young adults with special education needs (YA-SEN) are often less favourable compared to their peers without SEN. They are often anxious during interviews, especially when answering open-ended questions with unfamiliar interviewers and unexpected interruptions occur. To fill the gap, we developed an interactive job interview training (JIT) system featuring a cat-shaped robot - JIT-bot.

SAMPLE: JIT-bot was designed to provide an engaging, adaptive, and personalised training experience that supported users to practice and refine their interviewing skills in a less stressful environment. We recruited 28 participants in our study.

METHODS

A mixed-method approach was employed, including proficiency tests, interviews, and questionnaires.

RESULTS

Results provided preliminary evidence that the experimental group showed a statistically significant improvement in intrinsic motivation. In contrast, the behavioural engagement of the control group decreased slightly. These findings and feedback will suggest future enhancements to JIT-bot's features and functions, making it a valuable tool to support JIT for YA-SEN.