Working with the NYC Department of Education, the industry partnered with local post-secondary educational institutions to bring career exploration workshops using Virtual Reality to students
NEW YORK, May 20, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — VinciVR Inc., a leading provider of Virtual Reality (VR) green energy industry and career exploration technologies for students, launched the inaugural New York City (NYC) Offshore Wind Immersion Week in partnership with Offshore Wind developers and postsecondary educational institutions. Developers included Attentive Energy, Community Offshore Wind, Vineyard Offshore, and Equinor; institutions included CUNY Staten Island, Laguardia Community College, RETI Center, and City Tech College. Students from 5 Career & Technical Education schools in the New YorkPublic Schools across Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island participated in day-long educational events about the nascent Offshore Wind Industry. Students received a 45 minute lecture followed by hands-on Virtual Reality simulations of an offshore wind technician’s job.
Student from McKee Technical Highschool in Staten Island receiving guidance from Vineyard Offshore during an Offshore Wind Technician VR career exploration simulation.
“I think this was a great experience. The students were excited about participating in the VR experience and had an opportunity to learn about Offshore Wind. They were provided great information on the many opportunities that it will possibly present in the future,” says Everett Kelley, teacher at George Westinghouse CTE High School.
VinciVR coordinated with the Offshore Wind Developers to partner with the education institutions to host students. VinciVR then worked with the NYC Department of Education to bring high school students from Ralph R. McKee CTE, Brooklyn Technical, STAR Early College School, Queens Technical, and George Westinghouse to the workshops. NYC Economic Development Corporation provided additional support. For future immersion events, VinciVR is looking to include unions and pre-apprenticeship programs.
“We were finding a wide gap between what students knew about Offshore Wind and the coming immense hiring needs of the industry,” says Eagle Wu, CEO of VinciVR. “We hope that this will be the first of many Immersion Events to help motivated students understand and access high paying jobs.”
“We’re excited to take part in the Offshore Wind Immersion week with Vinci VR, NYC EDC, NYC DOE, the Innovation Hub, and participating schools. We look forward to continuing to work together to build awareness among New York Citystudents of existing and future opportunities in the offshore wind industry,” says Ashley Ball, Director of Community Affairs, Empire Wind 1, Equinor.
Please email contact@vinci-vr.com if you would like to participate in future events in and out of NY.
About VinciVR: VinciVR creates Virtual Reality industry education and workforce development tools for the green energy industry. Its tools provide students with hands-on immersive experiences to explore careers across multiple job sectors in an engaging and realistic way. Students from public and private schools, pre-apprenticeships, and workforce development organizations across the US use Vinci’s VR tools everyday to learn how they can participate in the clean energy transition. Learn more about Vinci at our website: www.vinci-vr.com.
News Media Contact: Eagle Wu, ewu@vinci-vr.com
SOURCE Vinci Virtual Reality
