Virtual Reality to bring in skills

The need for reskilling and upskilling will be a trait in the next 5 years (World Economic Forum).

While AI is turning everything upside down in terms of future jobs, the collapse of industries, or sectorial transformation in a way that we can′t even imagine, the role that personal and professional skills are playing as a transversality element in the face of uncertainty, is a fact. But it is also a fact that acquiring specific skills, can take time, and nowadays, the speed of changes demands daily upskilling

The need for reskilling and upskilling will be a trait in the next 5 years as reported by the World Economic Forum′s?the Future of Jobs Report, 2023.?According to this source, 50% of all jobs will require a change in skillsets by 2027. Creative thinking, Analytical thinking, Techonlogical literaty and Curiosity, Lifelong learning and Resilence, flexibility and agility are the top 5 core skills on the rise.

The question is, how can we expose ourselves to situations where the necessary environments, circumstances, and settings are replicated to improve our skills? And how can we do it constantly and stably in a way that we can fast-track our experience? How can we do it in a time-concerned way that takes into account a change in professional and social patterns conditioned by an evolving world?

Although online learning courses, internships, and volunteering, (among others) have proven to be decisive assets when referring to skills improvement, the fast-changing business ecosystem, especially for soft skills requires additional ways to reduce skills gaps which are already one of the main barriers to business transformation. Technology can be a perfect ally to reduce this gap, especially Virtual Reality.

Virtual reality is much more than playing games

Have you ever thought of Virtual Reality as more than just playing games? Would you be surprised if I tell you that VR is being used in medical training, physical rehabilitation, psychotherapy, and project management?

VR is expected a market of 678$ billion by 2030. (SMT)

Let me explain to you how VR works.

• When you put on some glasses (HMDs), you are immediately transported to another reality, to a virtual world. This is what VR experts call place illusion, the illusion of being in a virtual place even though we know we are not.
• There is another illusion that plays an important role in VR, it`s what we call the plausibility illusion, the illusion that what is happening in your virtual world is happening. This has to do with a good setting development. Meta spends part of its 20% budget on Reality Labs (Reuters) to achieve this illusion.
• But the greatness of Virtual Reality is its third illusion, what we call the embodiment illusion, the feeling that your body is actually in the scene, in the world that you are in. This is something unique to VR, and a vital observation to understand how VR can help us work on skills. With VR we can feel we are a different person, we can be a pirate, a clerk, a surgeon, a manager, a mother..., and this perception lasts. As the Distinguished Investigator and Professor?Mel Slater?said: "VR can transform not just where we are but who we are. VR offers experiences that have a long-term effect on people".

Experiencing other identities and ways to relate creates a different perception of oneself and others. With VR we can interact with managers, as managers, we can be CEOs, develop empathy patterns, train resilience, be part of other social communities, and be creative in a way that we could have not imagined. Are you already anticipating scenarios where VR can enhance skills acquisition?

Which have been the experiences so far? Which are the barriers?

Although the metaverse seemed more hype than reality, according to the Gartner strategic planning assumption, by 2027 "over 40% of large organizations worldwide will be using a combination of Web3, spatial computing, and digital twins in metaverse-based projects aimed at increasing revenue".

Companies like Walmart, Bank of America, MGM, Albertsons, FedEx, JetBlue, GE, Sprouts, and Verizon are now using it for front-line workers.

Employees trained using VR complete training faster, are more confident, have a stronger emotional connection to the content, and are more focused which helps in skills acquisition. The latest PwC's?The Effectiveness of Virtual Reality. Soft Skills Training?is a great reference document stressing these conclusions.?

Entering a new way of learning implies a different mindset and at this point, this could be one of the main entry barriers for VR in a company. But the most verbalized barrier is the one related to investment which also pulls back many organizations. By now, VR can be more cost-effective at scale,

In conclusion

When you approach Virtual Reality not just for the fun of it but to understand what a good VR product implies and its benefits for medicine, therapy, social cognition, or professional skills improvement, your perception of Virtual Reality changes from a "mere" display which transports you to virtual scenarios to a business transformation enabler.

VR as a learning tool provides sound chances to grow in our current roles, potentially find more impactful career opportunities, and become strategic professionals in our work field.