virtual reality soft skills training

The findings from the recent PwC report “The Effectiveness of Virtual Reality Soft Skills Training in the Enterprise” has built a very compelling case for virtual reality training. It has also shed some light on the success behind one of our most exciting projects. 

sales simulation training 

A client was in desperate need of comprehensive sales training. When briefed, we saw an exciting opportunity to develop a virtual reality sales simulation training solution that would see confidence soar and profits rise. This brilliant solution did not only transform the sales training experience itself but enhanced the skill of the manager and in turn, the success of their team. Below is a summary of the results:

  • Improved confidence of sales managers significantly
  • Enhanced the learning experience
  • Shortened the learning curve
  • Facilitated progress tracking and promoted improvement where necessary
  • Engaged a global audience

the virtual reality training challenge

At the time of this project, virtual reality training was mostly used for technical learning. As affirmed in VwC’s report “VR training focused on job skills simulation training: flight simulators, safety procedures, equipment operation, and maintenance, etc. Industries using VR for safety, repair, and maintenance simulation training are seeing improvements in process efficiency.” 

Virtual reality rarely transferred into leadership training and other soft skills-based training. This left a gap of evidence and therefore support and future investment. At the time we were lucky the client listened to our suggestions and we’re both delighted with the results. 

Moving forward from this project, we found that clients can be sceptical about the spending behind virtual reality. This is justified as adding up build cost, headset spend, and storage capabilities will be costly. PwC provides a helpful breakdown of these costs, alongside stating the cost-effective nature of VR training. 

soft skill training 

The PwC report focuses on VR training effectiveness in soft skill training. The objective of the research was to find whether virtual reality is effective for training leadership, soft skills or other human-to-human interactions. And if so, does it have advantages over traditional classroom or e-learning methods. 

The findings are very compelling and with such results, we expect to see more openness to future spending with the VR soft skill training landscape. Developing soft skills will be fundamental to thriving in the changing world of work. We have been investigating this subject over the last year and will be sharing our results within the following months. 

the result from pwc report 

We suspected from our experience with virtual reality soft skills training that VR would come up on top. We didn’t expect such convincing evidence. Below is a summary of the findings, with VR being compared to classroom training and digital learning.  

  • Employees trained using VR completed training faster
  • Employees trained using VR were more confident
  • Employees trained using VR had a stronger emotional connection to the content

  • Employees trained using VR were more focused
  • VR can be more cost-effective at scale

There are many correlations in these findings as in our own. We both reduced the time spent on training, improved confidence, and focus. To read more about our sales simulation case study follow the link. Dive into the PwC report, it’s worth the read. The results speak for themselves. Jeremey Dalton, head of VR/AR, PwC concluded the report well. “Virtual reality will help to drive a new age of learning, development, and education by delivering a cost-effective, immersive, and efficient experience to train people on both hard and soft skills.”

To speak to us directly about incorporating VR and AR into your learning plan, you can call on 0117 440 1000, email at hello@fenturi.com or fill in the contact form below.

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