Powerful training experiences with Uptale immersive learning on Microsoft Azure
Uptale is a software-as-a-service company providing an immersive learning platform for large and distributed enterprises in Europe, North America, and Asia. Uptale’s mission is to educate the workforce at scale by enabling anyone to create VR training. Uptale’s immersive learning platform on Azure makes situation-handling skills easy to digitize, distribute, and track. The Uptale solution features an intuitive virtual reality authoring tool to create simulated workplace environments plus distribution options to deliver consistent training content to any device, at any location, in real time. It also provides insights and analytics across workforce enablement programs.
Uptale is built on Azure and takes advantage of Azure Cognitive Services. Uptale utilizes Azure Speech services, including the Text to Speech service with new neural voices and Speech to Text for voice recognition in the Uptale VR Translator.
Accelerating onboarding time for new manufacturing employees
One of the most challenging industries to train for is auto manufacturing. Onboarding operators on a car manufacturing production line is complex and time-consuming, and in-class training or e-learning cannot prepare them for the stressful environment of the line. Also, the production line cannot slow down to accommodate unskilled workers.
Groupe PSA, one of the leading car manufacturers in the world, implemented Uptale’s immersive learning platform to create an accelerated onboarding program for new hires in the company’s manufacturing plants. Groupe PSA operational managers began by taking 360-degree pictures and videos of the workstations. They used the Uptale VR authoring tool to create realistic and interactive training experiences. Trainees used VR headsets to complete the modules, available in five European languages. Recruits felt more prepared because they could rehearse at their own pace until they felt ready. Once on the production line, the new workers generated fewer interruptions.
Led by the enthusiasm of the managers and new recruits, Groupe PSA scaled the usage of VR training. Over two years, more than 300 experiences have been developed by 180 people. About one-third of Groupe PSA’s global workforce (50,000 people) is expected to be trained with Uptale by the end of 2020.
“New digital tools now help organizations like ours become truly self-learning,” said Jean Sevagen, Head of the Industrial Academy at Groupe PSA. “Immersive training modules pave the way for a ‘learning by living’ − yet digital − approach to upskilling people. This opens the door to a renewed, more efficient approach to internal training and skills management.”