Meeting Future Demand: Augmented Reality Skills Training for Community College Learners

Why AR for Community Colleges? 

Extended reality (XR) technology will shape the future of work through immersive experiences, and community colleges sit at the forefront of democratizing XR training for learners who are systemically underrepresented in technology fields.  

To maintain their status as economic engines for local communities, community colleges must remain responsive to the changing needs of employers and train learners for the skills of the future workplace. Because XR is likely to be closely linked to quality jobs of the future, community college leadership should establish XR opportunities now. Community colleges that do so will serve as hubs for XR education and catalysts for learners’ future career paths. 

Augmented reality (AR) is a development option for new skills that presents instructors and learners with a way to ease into XR training. AR use cases exist for a variety of career paths, including graphic design, marketing, web development, UX design, health care, and engineering. However, community colleges will need a significant amount of insight into the technology to stand up programming for the first time. 

This playbook serves as an instructional guide for community college leaders, instructors, college partners in the community, and policymakers as they launch AR programming. It outlines recommendations, with a how-to approach for each phase of development, implementation, and program sustainability.