Why Extended Reality and Immersive Learning?

Extended reality (XR) technology and immersive learning have already reshaped how people learn, work, and have fun. Now, new career pathways can give businesses, consumers, and society access to the opportunities created by “metaverse” technologies. As XR technologies grow and are adopted, we will see the enablement and growth of access to a number of skill certifications, short-term training programs, and other accessible education opportunities—instead of just four-year degrees—to support economic advancement.

Jobs for the Future (JFF) presents a new framework of occupations and career paths created or transformed by the emergence of XR technology and immersive learning, as well as illustrative job titles, critical skills, and anticipated training and hiring requirements for each. We draw connections between currently available non-XR careers and their XR and immersive learning equivalents, presenting parallel career paths and skills for XR with a particular focus on ensuring on-ramps for populations that too often experience barriers to economic opportunity. We also highlight opportunities to disrupt typical career paths to develop more accessible on-ramps than currently established careers often allow.

About the program

This report is made possible through the support of Meta. Jobs for the Future (JFF) and Meta are working together as partners to better understand and showcase the potential of extended reality (XR) technologies to transform learning and work.