North Las Vegas library district teams with state to pilot VR career-mapping program at Dolores Huerta Resource Center
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Summary
State and local leaders said a pilot individual career mapping program using virtual reality will launch April 3 at the Dolores Huerta Resource Center; the program includes 53 VR 'field trips,' offers the ACT National Career Readiness Certificate ("Workiz") and will begin with 10–15 participants.
Tammy Westergaard, librarian in residence with the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED), told the North Las Vegas Library District Board on March 24 that a state-backed individual career mapping (ICM) program will launch at the Dolores Huerta Resource Center on April 3 as a small pilot cohort.
The program pairs immersive virtual-reality "field trips" with assessments and pathways into training. "We have 53 focused field trips that are all within Nevada's in-demand sectors," Westergaard said, citing advanced manufacturing, health care, IT, logistics and skilled trades. She said the district’s first cohort will be capped at about 10–15 participants to allow staff training and to avoid overwhelming users.
Kirsten Heiss, GOED’s senior director of innovation and strategic programs, described the ICM as a response to four challenges facing jobseekers — personal circumstances, state economic shifts, demographic change and rapid technological development — and said the model combines exploration, assessment and industry-recognized credentials. "This is a methodology that guides us," Heiss said, describing the program’s immersive, assessment and credentialing components.
Jahidi Rivera, GOED’s library-district workforce librarian in residence who is leading on-the-ground implementation in North Las Vegas, said the program is designed to hand participants off to training providers and career coaches. "We're the GPS — you put in the address, which is the career, and we'll tell you what steps you would need to take," Rivera said. Rivera added that while the program guides participants toward training, it does not itself pay for certifications; staff will discuss tuition-assistance options through partners such as WIOA.
City representatives emphasized local access and outreach. Wilson Ramos, director of community services and engagement for the City of North Las Vegas, said the Dolores Huerta center provides a trusted, collaborative space for rolling out the pilot. Maggie Moore, community outreach manager overseeing the center, said the program’s materials and comms will include Spanish-language outreach and that the entire ICM pathway can be delivered in Spanish to better reach non-English-speaking residents.
Program leaders said virtual-reality field trips are brief (roughly three to four minutes each) and designed to let participants experience a day in different workplaces. The team plans to train all on-site staff later this week to operate the headsets and to use the VR experiences for outreach.
Implementation is already underway through coordinated recruitment, the presenters said, and GOED officials said they will return with a progress update about eight weeks after the April 3 launch.
What’s next: the pilot cohort will begin April 3; GOED and local partners will train staff and report back to the board with an update in June.
