Bridging the Gap between Industry and Academia - The Essence of Virtual Reality in Skills Development and Learning Factories

Abstract

The need for a competent skilled workforce continues to grow as the world advances in technology. Normal training methods that require trainees to be present on-site during training sessions may, in some instances, be detrimental to the health of the trainer and trainee. Learning factories were developed to bridge the gap between university or college graduates and industry in a real live atmosphere. However, the Covid-19 era has ushered in a new dimension that forces companies and institutions of higher learning to develop appropriate environments for skilling the qualified but unskilled labour force. This research looks at the development of learning factories using virtual reality as a solution for future training and skilling requirements. A training programme targeting a lathe machine tool is explored and developed to demonstrate the applicability of virtual reality in learning factories.The development explored the application of virtual technologies such as augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality to develop a user-friendly training programme.