Virtual tours to introduce middle and high school students to the industrial world: the challenge of Schneider Electric with Uptale

• Develop the interest of young people in industrial jobs through virtual reality and gamification of interactive experiences.
• Show the major challenges and changes in these professions today and in the future: connected factories, ecological transition, feminization of industrial professions…
• Thanks to the use of new technologies, this virtual visit will be accessible from anywhere in the world.

Paris, March 24, 2023 – Schneider Electric, world leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, has joined forces with Uptale, a specialist in virtual reality training, for an innovative project.

The objective: to encourage young people to develop an interest in industrial jobs through virtual reality and gamification of interactive experiences, and to show the major challenges and changes in these jobs today and in the future: connected factories, ecological transition, feminization of industrial jobs.

A realistic immersion in the factory of the future

As a pillar of the global economy, the industry must nevertheless face a major challenge: attract the talents of the new generation. Indeed, the industrial world has changed a lot in recent years and the jobs in factories are no longer the same. It has become more digital, more sensitive to environmental issues, and welcomes more and more women.

To reach many young people and show them the different career paths, positions and opportunities, from any cell phone or computer, in France or abroad, Schneider Electric and Uptale worked together to develop a first series of immersive virtual reality tours. They focus on technological and social topics that have shaped the industry in recent years:

• The first visit, entitled “Circular Economy“, was filmed on the Schneider Electric site in Privas. It showed the different jos linked to each stage of repair to give the products a second life.
• The second visit, “Industry 4.0“, aims to show how new technologies are used to improve productivity and the daily life of workers on the Vaudreuil site, and the associated jobs…
• The third visit focuses on the feminization of industrial jobs by following the daily life of an engineer and a technician on the Carros site. We have written a press release on this subject

In this context and to incite young students to discover and show interest in the industrial world, Schneider Electric has created interactive and fun virtual tours thanks to the Uptale platform. This Immersive Learning solution helps create immersive modules from photos and 360° videos, without any prior technical knowledge.

The experiences have been highly gamified to make them more engaging and attractive to the young target audience. Immersed in 360° in the reality of the factory, the students learn about the industrial jobs and interact with the 3D elements (research game, videos, quizzes, images, etc.), in the same way as a video game. The visit also includes interviews with people who work in the factories. This brings authenticity to the visits and lets users meet the employees as if they were on a real visit.

« The visit was very relevant. It was very well-structured. Doing the experience with a VR headset helps us to be in total immersion, and I like it because you can understand things better! » commented a student who tried out the experience.

A student who tried out the circular economy module said, “It was good and entertaining. I discovered many different jobs and I thought it was great. Everything was well explained”. Another emphasizes the quality of the structure of the experience and the value of virtual reality: “The visit was very relevant. It was very well-structured. Doing the experience with a VR headset helps us to be in total immersion, and I like it because you can understand things better!”

A National Education inspector praised the pedagogical value of these modules: “The site visit was very interesting because we could meet the operators and get their point of view. I will recommend it to other schools. It’s almost a revolution in learning! It can be a lever to anchor learning with our young people.”

Moreover, the training courses created with the tool can be deployed on all screens (computer, tablet, mobile and VR headset), but can also be easily translated thanks to instantaneous translation. For an international group such as Schneider Electric, this makes it possible to accelerate the deployment of modules on a large scale.

Beyond the creation of several virtual tours bringing students to the heart of factories, Schneider Electric and Uptale is also a collaboration that has led to 45,000 training sessions conducted on 700 experiences covering different themes since 2018: gestures and standard operating procedures (SOP) training safety reception, workstation organization optimization using the 5S method, sales training… Thanks to the integration of VR into their training programs, Schneider Electric has been able to build enthusiasm among their employees by making their training sessions more attractive, impactful and engaging. Uptale now complements their on-site training and can be deployed on all sites.

About Schneider Electric

Schneider’s purpose is to empower all to make the most of our energy and resources, bridging progress and sustainability for all. We call this Life Is On. Our mission is to be your digital partner for Sustainability and Efficiency.

We drive digital transformation by integrating world-leading process and energy technologies, end-point to cloud connecting products, controls, software and services, across the entire lifecycle, enabling integrated company management, for homes, buildings, data centers, infrastructure and industries. We are the most local of global companies. We are advocates of open standards and partnership ecosystems that are passionate about our shared Meaningful Purpose, Inclusive and Empowered values.

About d’Uptale

Uptale is a Digital Learning solution to digitalize field training through virtual reality. The solution helps any organization to digitize its environments and know-how in the form of immersive, educational and interactive 360° experiences. Today, Uptale is used by more than 200 companies, including Schneider Electric, to develop the practice of Immersive Learning on a large scale in complete autonomy.