Virtual reality-based training (VRBT) is an interactive and immersive teaching method that employs technology to provide virtual scenarios to simulate situations that might occur in actual settings. Virtual reality training for health and safety is a perfect interaction, and can simulate a multitude of different training scenarios simulating on-the-job style training in a safe, controlled and forgiving environment.
Useful for helping build both motor skills and soft skills, virtual reality (VR) enables trainers to deliver large amounts of complex information in a visually attractive way and provides a cost-effective means for large numbers of people to be trained within a virtual setting, often remotely. In addition, VR can help divide complex data into manageable pieces.
The safety training world has continuously looked for new ways to make training more visual, with the use of videos, images and E-Learning technologies, to engage learners as much as possible by appealing to their visual senses. Virtual reality is well suited to health and safety training, with academic research demonstrating increased retention of critical safety knowledge when learned through VR. Increased knowledge retention in turn has a significant impact on workplace safety.
Virtual reality training for health and safety provides the opportunity to use performance data, and data integration, to enhance the learning process – remotely, centrally, and at lower cost. These same advances in technology also provide opportunities to transform the delivery of health and safety training. With a workforce of lower attention spans and higher demands of media experiences, the ability to deliver meaningful courses and programmes, that create high impact, are repeatable, updatable, and cost effective, has never been more of the essence than it is today.
The health & safety training industry needs efficient, cost-effective and timely training. Virtual reality training provides real world scenarios without the real-world danger. Unlike classroom training, VR delivers immersive, realistic training that students retain now and when they need it on the job and it can be far more engaging than some traditional forms of training. If your staff prefer to learn through hands-on experience, it’s unlikely they’ll find taking notes from a textbook or PowerPoint presentations particularly exciting.
This is where VR stands head and shoulders above more traditional forms of health and safety training: it’s incredibly engaging, as it allows you to put your staff in real-life and potentially hazardous situations, but with no risk of harm. This provides the perfect environment for them to learn how to deal with certain problems before they’re required to do so on the job.
The beauty of VR is that once you’ve arranged for all of the necessary training materials to be created, you can use them time and time again. Plus, the technology and training materials can be used anywhere, meaning your employees can access the information they need, wherever in the world they may be.
If you’re thinking about upgrading your training programme using virtual reality training for health and safety, now is a great time to do so. For further information and advice on all aspects of Health and Safety please contact us here.