Growth Through Innovation Funding

As the pace of technological change becomes ever faster, the skills agenda is centre stage as we look for organisations, and people, to not only survive, but thrive, in the age of artificial intelligence.

The term “artificial intelligence” covers a broad spectrum of areas but, essentially, we are talking about technologies that are replacing not just human hands (manual skills) but human heads (cognitive skills). And it’s the replacement of human heads that makes this industrial revolution so different from technological expansions of the past.

So whilst ‘hard’ digital skills are rightly seen as essential in today’s workplace, it’s the uniquely human or ‘soft’ skills (skills that machines cannot emulate at least for the foreseeable future) that are increasingly in demand.

Good communication, strong emotional intelligence, creativity, empathy, adaptability – soft skills are essential to the future of work (Forbes).

The Challenge of Soft Skills Training

Soft skills are difficult to measure and equally difficult to train. Unlike hard skills, a ‘one and done’ approach is not sufficient for acquiring skills that make a lasting change in behaviour. This means delivering soft skills training at scale can be both costly in time and money.

Virtual Reality training scenarios simulate realistic workplace behavioural scenarios and are a highly sophisticated form of role play.

Using virtual embodiment, the learners interact with a virtual character, then swap bodies and watch an avatar of themselves as the situation is played back.  The impact of this new perspective encourages self-reflection and embeds learning from practical experience within a virtual environment.

 

How the Growth Through Innovation (GTi) Grant Funding supported our business

The GTi funding was instrumental in us developing the skills and knowledge necessary to understand and utilise VR as a delivery platform for learning, particularly for soft skills.

The funding enabled us to:

1. Further our knowledge of the use of VR in the workplace and  its potential by becoming members of:
Academy – Future Workplace®
VR Learning HUB – VR Learning HUB (vrlearninglab.nl)

2.  Purchase software packages and training to use to produce blended learning programmes (i.e. content to go around the VR scenarios in addition to live training from an instructor):

3. Purchase Bodyswaps licences, a VR and mobile platform for soft skills training. These licences were used in EIRA funded usability trials with the University of Suffolk.