Facebook’s owner Meta and a French digital training firm have come together to launch a ‘metaverse academy’ in France for the new academic year. According to the technology major, the move will help develop the internet’s next great technology.
Meta also refers to the initiative as an immersive digital world that aims to recreate real life via augmented or virtual reality and take the web from 2D to 3D.
Meanwhile, the academy in its first year will look to train for free around 100 students in two roles, specialist immersive technology developers and support and assistance technicians, Meta’s vice president for southern Europe Laurent Solly earlier said.
“The teaching method will be in-person and revolve around projects, with a focus on the 3D world and interactions in the virtual universes,” Frederic Bardeau, co-founder and boss of Simplon, the French firm working with Meta said.
The new academies will be located in Paris and other cities including Lyon, Marseille and Nice, the metaverse academy will train 20 students per city each year.
The academy will give particular attention to diversity. In October 2021, Meta said it intended to create 10,000 jobs in Europe in five years’ time to build the metaverse, the US technology giant’s new strategic priority.
The goal is tied to predictions that future job skills demanded by employers will be closely tied with the metaverse. Meta and Simplon said 80 percent of the careers that will exist in 2030 have not been invented yet, highlighting the need to develop training schemes now.
