Virtual Reality Training

Virtual Reality | Escape | Education | Buffalo, NY | B Corp

Plenty of us have seen the Samsung commercials or demonstrations for their virtual reality capabilities; most of the time these demonstrations are being offered as some sort of entertainment. They’re marketing to the people looking for an escape from reality, people looking for a better, less stressful place to go.

But to limit virtual reality to being an outlet for escape appears to be a gross underestimation for its capabilities. For companies looking to train their employees, virtual reality offers an affordable training method, which could give new employees the sort of training that used to be reserved for veteran staff members and real world experience.

UPS is one of those companies capitalizing on developments in virtual reality technology. They will be opening nine training centers for their drivers who will undergo immersive virtual reality training for their future routes. This training not only familiarizes drivers with the routes they will have to take, but offers a unique ability to include hazards and worst case scenarios at no risk to anyone’s property, or personal safety.[1] So not only does this offer a more practical education for the drivers, it also offers them more opportunities to experience a wide range of scenarios previously unavailable to them outside of having to go through the hazard in real life.

UPS is not the only company plunging into virtual reality training. America’s largest employer Walmart is using virtual reality to prepare its employees for major shopping holidays.[2] Rookies will no longer have to go through trial by fire when Black Friday rolls around. Instead, employees will report to a training facility and go through virtual reality simulations of the company’s busiest time of the year.

It’s rather funny that something being promoted as an escape from reality is capable of becoming an important tool in bettering the performance of our day to day lives. The opportunities for these kinds of simulation are vast, and the possibilities for training could be endless. Developments in this field could prove to be exciting in how they benefit reducing the learning curve of future hires.

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[1] https://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2017/08/18/ups-to-use-virtual-reality-to-train-truck-drivers/

[2] https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/1/15725732/walmart-strivr-vr-training-module