Modernizing Soft Skills Training Through VR For 20,000 Students
Discover how VIVES University of Applied Sciences is leveraging VirtualSpeech’s VR capabilities to modernize soft skills training for 20,000 students and staff.
Highlights
20,000
Students with access
Eager
and motivated learners
15%
average skills improvement
Scalable
and flexible for educators
Customer Introduction
VIVES University of Applied Sciences in Flanders is a forward-thinking higher education institution known for its commitment to innovative teaching and future-oriented learning.
With a strong emphasis on digital transformation in education, VIVES actively integrates smart technologies and digital tools into its curricula. This approach supports blended learning, data-driven improvement, and digital literacy, ensuring that education stays aligned with the evolving demands of the labour market.
The Goal
In keeping with its future-oriented, tech-driven vision, VIVES sought to harness immersive technology to bridge the gap between theory and practice.
This mentality set the stage for VIVES to adopt VirtualSpeech’s virtual reality platform as part of its digital teaching methods, with the university seeing VR as a means to provide engaging, experience-based learning – and better prepare students for future workplaces.
Having identified a need for both students and staff to practice and improve their soft skills, VIVES began working with VirtualSpeech VR. This implementation enables learners to build these skills in lifelike, low-pressure environments and receive instant, personalized feedback.
“VirtualSpeech enables soft skills to be trained in an innovative and accessible way. Students experience the simulations as lifelike and less stressful than traditional role-playing, allowing them to focus on their growth. The platform also offers opportunities for our employees, from onboarding to leadership training. Thanks to AI support, we can personalize our guidance and use it more efficiently, while focusing on future-oriented, experience-based learning.”
Kurt Galle, Coordinator Digital Teaching Methods, VIVES
The Solution
Implementing the VirtualSpeech platform has enhanced VIVES’s digital teaching methods by providing an accessible, realistic way to practice key soft skills. Using VR headsets and the VirtualSpeech app, students and staff engage in simulations that mirror real-life scenarios.
VIVES utilized a wide range of virtual environments, simulations, and scenarios, including conducting meetings in a board room, delivering presentations in an auditorium, and practicing for job interviews in an office.
This approach aligns perfectly with VIVES’s mission of future-proof education by integrating innovative tools that enhance evaluation, reflection, and talent development in both academic programs and staff training.
Results and Benefits
Since deploying VirtualSpeech, VIVES identified several concrete benefits for both students and educators, in line with the university’s goals for innovative skills development.
These benefits include increased motivation and engagement, better-prepared students, and realistic and immersive learning experiences.
Beyond these core benefits, the introduction of VirtualSpeech has helped embed a culture of innovation in teaching at VIVES.
- Learners highlighted the realistic nature of the simulations and the benefits of immediate feedback.
- 20,000 students and staff can now access realistic, immersive VR soft skill training.
- VIVES’ educators reported that students were not only more motivated when using VR for training, but also came to traditional classes better-prepared and more eager to participate, having gained hands-on practice in the virtual environment.
- 15% average skills improvement for learners using VirtualSpeech.
