Implementation Preparation Costs of Virtual Interview Training in Pre-Employment Transition Services: A Budget Impact Analysis

Abstract

Virtual Reality Job Interview Training (VR-JIT) and Virtual Interview Training for Transition Age Youth (VIT-TAY) demonstrated initial effectiveness at increasing employment among transition-age youth with disabilities engaged in pre-employment transition services. We characterized activities and estimated the labor and non-labor costs required to prepare schools to implement VR-JIT or VIT-TAY. Implementation preparation and support teams reported labor hours throughout the implementation preparation process. Implementation preparation labor hours at 43 schools cost approximately $1,427 per school, while non-labor costs were $100 per trainee (student). We estimated the replication of implementation preparation labor activities would cost $1,024 per school (range: $841-$1,208). Most costs were spent in delivery planning and teacher training. Given that implementation preparation costs can be barriers to intervention adoption, our results provide critical information for contemplating future implementation of VR-JIT or VIT-TAY.

Enhancing pre-employment transition services: A type 1 hybrid randomized controlled trial protocol for evaluating WorkChat: A Virtual Workday among autistic transition-age youth

“…We will use sensitivity analysis to estimate the range of replicating the implementation preparation costs for future sites. This economic evaluation can help provide transparency around the administrator and staff workload required to prepare new sites to implement WorkChat , which have recently emerged as helpful in community-based research settings [ [97] , [98] , [99] ]. Third, they recommended capturing performance-based measures of social ability and emotion regulation.…”