How virtual reality is supercharging learning

We all know that automotive needs to embrace a wider pool when looking for talent, that includes people with mental health problems or other disadvantages that may have hindered their progress. And new learning approaches are helping that happen.

Virtual reality is helping those who learn differently to gain the skills they need to succeed in the workshop and build a successful career, where perhaps in the past they would have been lost to the industry.

One of the pioneers of virtual reality’s use is First Step Trust. The technology is helping those who come through the doors to learn skills they may not have been able to through traditional means.

Ronnie Wilson, Chief Executive of First Step Trust says: “Virtual reality is a good learning tool for anyone, but with people with dyslexia or ADHD for example, it allows them to be hands on in a safe environment.”

That’s key. We all learn differently, and just because people may not have had the best start in life, facing different challenges, doesn’t mean they don’t want to succeed, it’s just finding the tools to help them achieve their goals.

“You can do anything in virtual reality that you can in a garage, including oil services and brake changes. What’s even better is that you can replicate it time and time again helping improve people. In fact in our experience, within hours of someone using virtual reality to learn skills, we’ve had them working on real vehicles in the workshop,” says Wilson.

And First Step Trust’s Trading Places initiative gives people in the industry the opportunity to see how the technology works first hand, visiting SMaRT® garage services, using the technology and perhaps more importantly talk to those who are benefitting from it face-to-face.

For Wilson it was virtual reality’s ease of use, immersiveness, controllability and repeatability that made it the perfect fit, and he has big plans for the technology.

Automotive is evolving and Wilson hopes to grow the use of virtual reality with an ambition he says to become the first IMI VR training programme. It’s a lofty target, but the IMI already sees the benefit of embracing the technology.

It recently launched the Real Wear Tech for End Point Assessments – more on that in a future edition of MotorPro Weekly.

Virtual reality is here to stay, it’s destined to help a lot more people accelerate their automotive careers, and First Step Trust has proven it works.