Interplay Learning

Jim Clor, a veteran edtech leader, joins the innovative skilled trades training provider as the company continues to expand learning opportunities for K-12 Education, Higher Ed and Workforce Development organizations.

Interplay Learning, the leading provider of immersive skilled trades training, has named Edtech sales executive Jim Clor, Vice President of Education and Workforce Development.

In his new role, Jim spearheads Interplay Learning’s sales and strategic efforts for the company’s education and workforce development business. His industry expertise and vision will be key to Interplay Learning’s efforts to support more scalable, engaging skilled trades training in school districts, colleges, technical schools, and workforce programs. Using immersive technology solutions such as 3D simulations, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence, Interplay can deliver hands-on trades training and credentials even when traditional resources may not be available.

“Jim brings an extensive background leading edtech sales orgs and partnering with schools to launch innovative solutions,” said Doug Donovan, CEO and founder of Interplay Learning. “Education is evolving rapidly. We’ll be relying on his expertise and leadership as Interplay continues to grow, with the goal of supporting innovation and scale for our academic and workforce development partners.”

Jim has over two decades of experience in strategic edtech sales, marketing, and executive management for some of the industry’s most respected companies. During his career, he has served in senior positions at both large and startup organizations, leading multiple companies from concept to acquisition.

“Supporting innovation in education through technology has been a central part of my career path. I’m excited to join a fast growth company that is reimagining skilled trades instruction in a way that better serves today’s learners and educators,” Clor said. “Interplay Learning has a proven commitment to partnering with schools and workforce organizations to ensure students graduate with job-ready skills in high demand and often overlooked trades occupations.”

To learn more about Interplay Learning’s ongoing commitment to innovation and the transformation of skilled trades education, visit Interplay Learning.

Empowering Organizations to Simplify, Scale and Succeed, Interplay Enterprise, an all-in-one career development platform, marks the next chapter in immersive training and talent development

Interplay Learning, the leading provider of immersive skilled trades training, announced today the launch of Interplay Enterprise. Shaped by customer insights, this immersive career development platform introduces exciting new features designed to help enterprises elevate the skills of their entire workforce, streamline operations, and improve retention.

Interplay Enterprise simplifies career development by providing an all-in-one platform for company-wide learning. It includes nearly 500 hours of on-demand skilled trades courses, industry certification prep courses, learning paths, and 3D/VR simulations crafted by industry experts. A new content manager tool makes it easy for trainers and administrators to include additional courses about topics like leadership, management, compliance, ethics, and more by uploading SCORM-compliant course packages, videos, and documents. They can also use the content manager to build content, quizzes, and custom learning paths tailored to the diverse training needs of their workforce, while also managing and tracking in-person classroom training–all in one place.

Comprehensive management tools give enterprises the ability to scale and facilitate training across multiple locations and job roles. Administrators can streamline onboarding and user management with 60+ pre-built HR systems integrations and automated assignments for courses, paths, and due dates. Interplay also provides a suite of measurement, reporting, and AI-based recommendation tools, including skills assessments and insights dashboards. These empower leaders to add value with actionable insights to optimize training performance and help learners build the safety and accuracy skills they need to get to the next level.

“The latest evolution of our industry-leading solution allows organizations to simplify career development, scale their training, and succeed in building a strong, skilled workforce,” said Doug Donovan, CEO and founder of Interplay Learning. “With Interplay Enterprise, companies can provide safe, effective online training for all employees in one centralized learning space. They are not only able to apply Interplay’s proven trades training content, but they can also manage, track, upload, and create their own training — all within our career development platform. Our Enterprise customers can also count on our partnership through every step of their employees’ journey within our platform.”

“Interplay’s all-in-one platform allows us to track progress, identify areas for improvement, and provide scaffolded support to meet techs where they are to help them succeed,” said Andrew Hasty, director of learning and development, Peterman Brothers Heating, Cooling & Plumbing. “We’re strategically aligning Interplay’s platform to our paths of progression and career development initiatives. Our goal is to identify learning gaps and provide targeted interventions that support each technician’s unique journey.”

Interplay’s career development platform also offers:

• Immersive learning experiences: Learners experience VR and simulation-based training in a safe, immersive environment, enhancing knowledge retention, engagement, and skill-building.
• Ready-made, enterprise-grade solutions: A scalable cloud-based platform provides secure access anytime, anywhere, with user-friendly functionality.
• Reporting API: Powerful data from Interplay’s career development platform can be integrated into other software systems for additional analysis and reporting.
• Customizable platform: Deliver the platform with your own brand logos and colors, and customize learning paths to include your company’s values, employer strategy, and ways of working.
• Convenience and compatibility: Interplay Enterprise delivers flexibility and mobile compatibility to maximize accessibility for on-the-go workers.
• World-class enterprise service and support: Interplay Learning is a strategic partner for career development consulting, implementation, insights, and U.S.-based support.

The Interplay Enterprise career development platform is now generally available–some of the mentioned new features and capabilities will be released in the Summer and Fall of 2024. For more information about Interplay Enterprise, visit www.interplaylearning.com/enterprise.

The leading provider of immersive skilled trades training joins the ranks of Nvidia, YouTube, Taco Bell and more

Interplay Learning has been named to Fast Company’s prestigious list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies of 2024. The leading provider of immersive skilled trades training ranks #6 in the Applied AI category.

Fast Company’s World’s Most Innovative Companies of 2024 list shines a spotlight on businesses that are shaping industry and culture through their innovations. These organizations are setting new standards and achieving remarkable milestones in all sectors of the economy. Alongside the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies, Fast Company recognizes 606 organizations across 58 sectors and regions.

“At Interplay, we believe in the power of training to not only improve people’s lives but to transform businesses and tackle key issues like the skilled labor shortage,” said Doug Donovan, Interplay Learning’s founder and CEO. “By using innovative technology like AI and VR to train skilled trades workers, we’re helping individuals find paths to rewarding careers and providing businesses with powerful tools to drive long-term growth.”

As demand for home services continues to surge, skilled trades businesses remain understaffed and struggle to hire workers. Interplay is addressing this industry challenge by providing innovative training solutions to help companies ramp workers faster and retain them longer. Interplay’s most recent innovation is SAM (Skill Advisor and Mentor), the first AI-powered mentor for learning and skill development in the skilled trades. SAM helps learners when they are training in Interplay’s award-winning platform by answering questions, encouraging critical thinking, fostering deep understanding, and accelerating the learning process.

SAM’s unique ability to help people gain skills faster and learn more efficiently is just one example of how Interplay’s innovative training solutions are empowering employers, educational institutions, and workforce development organizations with tools to solve the skilled labor gap and reimagine the way they approach workforce development.

Interplay’s digital training platform allows learners to practice high-demand, hands-on skills in a safe environment so companies can hire people with no experience and get them to be job-ready and productive faster. The use of virtual reality (VR) and simulation-based training provides businesses with a competitive edge and serves as a recruiting tool for them to attract a more diverse pool of workers and retain them longer with cross-skilling and career advancement – all important advantages in an industry dealing with a significant labor shortage. In addition, Interplay can act as a world-class mobile learning center, providing access to transformational career training to underserved communities throughout the world.

The World’s Most Innovative Companies stands as Fast Company‘s hallmark franchise and one of its most anticipated editorial efforts of the year. Fast Company’s editors and writers identified the companies driving progress around the world and across industries, evaluating thousands of submissions through a competitive application process. The result is a globe-spanning guide to innovation today, from early-stage startups to some of the most valuable companies in the world.

“Our list of the Most Innovative Companies is both a comprehensive look at the innovation economy and a snapshot of the business trends that defined the year,” said Fast Company editor-in-chief Brendan Vaughan. “We saw extraordinary innovation across the board in 2023, but we also saw a handful of clear patterns: the growing footprint and impact of AI, the triumphant return of live events, and great leaps forward in climate tech. We face daunting challenges on many fronts, but the solutions we celebrate in MIC give me plenty of hope about the future.”

To learn more about Interplay Learning’s ongoing commitment to innovation and the transformation of skilled trades training, visit Interplay Learning.

Virtual and simulation training isn’t necessarily new to the industry but its acceptance has been met with intrigue, and trepidation. But to say that this is the future of training? Not so fast. The consensus thoughts regarding this type of training is that will never replace in-person or on-the-job training, but it will become a cog in the overall “wheel” for training assets.

According to Taco Comfort Solutions’ Product & Application Instructor-East, Dave Holdorf, Taco doesn’t want to change its training necessarily, rather seek to enhance the training experience.

“We ask many attendees how we can improve our classes and seminars.  One of the most frequent replies is: ‘Add a hands-on section to the class; the theory is great and useful, but I want to install.’

“In a classroom setting, this can sometimes be difficult for the space needed, the time it takes, and to accommodate the different skillsets of attendees. We believe we’re now on a track with virtual reality (VR) training to give that experience to attendees—whether they’re seasoned pros, or new to the trade. VR can help to guide participants in what to look for, and more importantly what not to do on a project,” says Holdorf.

F.W. Webb’s Michael DelConte checks out the VR display at the Taco booth during the AHR Expo.

Ken Midgett, former teacher and apprenticeship Instructor, Lehigh Career & Technical Institute, now Plumbing, Marketing Director with Interplay—whose mission statement is “Better Careers Better Lives”—believes that they can play a part in a person’s career trajectory with that person using Interplay’s content. “When a person engages in learning and increases both their fundamental knowledge and the steps to do a task, we are helping that person upskill and creating more career opportunities for them. The value of a product that interplay offers is the demand function. You do not have to wait until a class is offered you can just connect and learn,” says Midgett.

Adaptation to simulation and on-demand training is paramount to success for the learner and the business. Midgett says that traditional classroom learning for skilled trades is becoming more and more challenging for several reasons:

• Finding good instructors: Many think that because they know a skill, they can teach it effectively. As a former educator, this is not always the case. This leads to poor instruction and marginal learners who are not engaged.
• The cost: The cost of running and maintaining a hands-on training center is much higher than instructor salaries and consumables.
• Change or die: Young learners are not inept at learning from lectures. Most skilled trade learners need to be engaged with learning and it must represent meaningful learning.
• The disruption of classroom learning to the workday: A rationale for going to class in the evening for 2-3 hours is losing traction to young learners. Business owners become frustrated with learning times and days as they view this as unproductive time. Young learners need to be met where they are with training that fits their lifestyle.

Interplay Learning training, combined with the new employee with the right attitude who is coachable and willing to learn, can be an explosive combination with a win-win result. “Taking an apprentice and having them spend time training and learning with on-demand training and then pushing that person into the field with a skilled person to watch and do in the real world is the best way to train this person or persons at scale,” says Midgett, who says there are numerous other advantages to this model:

• On-job efficiency increases as the apprentice now possesses the foundational knowledge and skills to perform a given task.
  • Relationships are better between the journeymen and the apprentice, as the journeyman perceives the apprentice as engaged and productive.
  • Business owners experience low turnover, better culture, and increased revenue as these new hires have direction and are leaning at scale.
  • Technicians feel confident in their work due to training and upskilling.
  • Callbacks are reduced and remediation training for the technician to increase their confidence
  • Service managers can focus on coaching and maintaining technician stats instead of being the only technical lifeline for numerous techs.
  • When sending these apprentices to “factory training,” they can engage and understand this much better due to the foundational knowledge.

Nonetheless, Midgett says there are a few things to note and understand about simulation and on-demand training:
• On-the-job or hands-on training with higher skilled supervision cannot be replaced.

• Simulations are great at teaching steps and muscle memory of a task.
• Simulation or any on-demand training cannot teach “feel.” As an example, simulation training cannot teach the skill of what “tight” feels like with a pair of wrenches on threaded steel piping or how tight to make a tank-to-bowl connection on a closet, or how tight a screw should be on the control board. This is what the onsite skilled person or journeyman must understand and teach effectively on site.

“While VR, AR and simulation-based technology are great resources, I do not think that any one particular learning system or style is the future,” says Rich Camacho, CEO & Co-Founder, BlueRecruit. Having said that, Camacho utilizes Interplay’s services (all of Interplay’s certifications and courses live on BlueRecruit, and when a person completes an Interplay course, they can then add that qualification to their BlueRecruit profile to strengthen their profile for Employer) and he thinks Interplay is a fantastic tool to augment in-class learning and a great launch point for someone either just entering the trades or seeking to upskill a particular technique.

“However, at the end of the day true craft mastery will occur in the field with a wrench. As technology continues to improve and costs continue to decline, Interplay will play a larger and larger part of building the next generation of skilled trades professionals and we’re excited to work alongside them in building “Better Careers and Better Lives,” says Camacho.