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The ITCILO, International Training Centre of the International Labour Organization, is the training arm of the International Labour Organization (ILO). The Centre provides learning and development services as well as training for governments, employers' organizations, workers' organizations, and other national and international partners. The ITCILO is part of the United Nations ecosystem.
The Centre has always been at the forefront of innovation in training, learning, and development. That’s why they’ve started exploring and leveraging the potential of virtual reality technology for the world of education and training.
In early 2020, to overcome disruptions to face-to-face trainings and physical meetings and in the era when learning has shifted toward digital formats, the ITCILO partnered with Arthur. The Centre uses Arthur for immersive and collaborative trainings in VR with ILO staff, constituents, and multiple UN agencies, such as the World Food Programme and South American trade union UOCRA. The organization aims to deliver high-impact training activities and to become a global leader in sustainable solutions for capacity development services.
“VR is one of the essential building blocks of our digital ecosystem and it is changing the way we teach, learn, and share knowledge. It has a high market potential for us because it provides an immersive learning experience.”
Andreas Klemmer, Director of Training, ITCILO
ITCILO and Arthur both strive to accelerate the rollout of virtual reality applications to learn digitally, effectively, and more sustainably. The main use cases include trainings, workshops, tailor-made courses, learning rooms, simulations and more.
Some examples of recent trainings and workshops conducted by ITCILO together with Arthur include:
- ITCILO and the World Food Programme and Logistics Cluster use Arthur regularly to offer 7-day trainings on emergency response management. In an immersive VR environment, participants go through role-play simulations for a realistic emergency experience.
- The EYPA is an EU-funded project that aims to tackle the problem of staff development for employers’ organisations by improving the skills and knowledge of high-potential professionals. The ITCILO has run that project on a yearly basis since 2012, and recently it was reimagined and turned into an online VR programme. VR training includes social dialogue role-playing simulations, interactive sessions, and discussions.
- The ITCILO ACTRAV team, which aims to promote workers’ organizations, together with Fundación UOCRA, Argentinian largest construction workers’ union, conducted the first training for constituents in Argentina.
- Working with the European Trade Union Institute for Research (ETUI), the ITCILO created a training of trainers (TOT) programme. It is an innovative and experimental learning tool for entrepreneurship trainers and educators. As an alternative to online video conferencing solutions, Arthur offers a VR office solution. Participants had a true-to-life experience with realistic, professional avatars and productivity tools.
As a result, the ITCILO creates a deeper learning experience and connects people in a meaningful way while mitigating health risks, savings on travel costs, and reducing its ecological footprint. With the help of Arthur’s VR solutions, ITCILO is changing the way learning is delivered and contributing to the future of work. Moreover, success of VR learning experiences has led to rollout considerations for both VR hardware and software in the United Nations more broadly.
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