A new immersive training facility and program, the Immersive Training Institute (ITI), has been launched Luton, UK in a collaboration between Central Bedfordshire College (CBC) and AI and VR development firm AiSolve. The Institute will put VR and AR technologies in the hands of students in conjunction with education training software and content to create an interactive curriculum.
The Institute will teach students technical skills, and says the VR and AR tech will “allow colleges to work creatively with teachers, trainers and lecturers to reimagine their teaching approach, giving them more time to teach the social skills and techniques that are so vital within the workplace, for example, how to approach a certain situation or how to respond to a manager.”
CBC is a regional college of further education focusing on providing students with knowledge and skills pertinent to the domestic and international workforce. Recent investments of £4 million on a new Engineering and Technology Centre on the Leighton Blizzard campus and £15.5 million on the main campus (Dunstable) aim to provide state of the art facilities for students.
AiSolve is an immersive software development firm based in Luton, that apply their software across multiple business disciplines such as retail, leisure, education, and healthcare. Their area of specialization is in artificial intelligence driven VR and AR applications and content.
CEO of AiSolve, Devi Kolli, plans to head the Immersive Training Institute initiative on her company’s behalf stating, “Virtual and mixed reality have finally reached a level of sophistication from both a hardware and software perspective. This translates to an ability to help educate and train students who will become the workforce of tomorrow.”
Ali Hadawi CBE, Principal, and Chief Executive of Central Bedfordshire College, will lead the college programme, advising, “All around England, we’re facing a skills gap that widens each year. Employees are under-prepared for what employers demand of them, particularly in specific, skills-based jobs. We see VR and MR as a solution to this problem as we can harness this advanced technology to deliver high impact, low cost, customised learning that teaches the skills most in demand.”
A launch event for the Institute was held earlier this month, co-hosted by AiSolve and CBC, at the Leighton Buzzard Engineering and Technology Center. In November 2017, ITI will begin its first pilot program for immersive skills training.
Update (10/17/17): Updated several mentions of the Immersive Training Institute which was incorrectly referred to as the “Immersive Technology Institute”.
