Mixed Reality can help bridge the gap between classroom learning and workplace experience by giving students and trainees opportunities to engage practical skills before entering real-world environments, a researcher, Rachel Israel Abasiama, has said.
Rachel, in a research article titled ‘From the Classroom to the Factory: Can Mixed Reality Prepare Nigeria’s Workforce for the Future?’, argued that Nigeria needed to explore immersive technology as a way of preparing its young workforce for an increasingly digital and technology-driven economy.
She explained that the traditional education system often prioritized examinations and certificates, leaving many graduates with strong theoretical knowledge but limited exposure to the equipment, processes and environments they would encounter in industry.
According to her, the problem was not a lack of intelligence or commitment among Nigerian students, but limited access to practical training facilities.
‘Practical training is expensive. Laboratories require continuous investment. Industrial equipment is costly to acquire and maintain. Safety concerns also make it difficult to expose students to certain operations,’ she stated.
Rachel said Mixed Reality, which combines physical and digital environments to create immersive learning experiences, could help students understand complex subjects by allowing them to simulate real-world situations without the risks and costs associated with conventional training.
She illustrated this with the example of a chemical engineering student learning about fluid flow through pipelines, saying the student could use a Mixed Reality headset to observe virtual fluids moving through pipelines and understand how pressure, velocity and bending affected their movement.
She noted that this technology could also be applied to several professions, including medicine, construction, electrical work, welding, mechanics and machine operation, allowing trainees to practice procedures and identify potential hazards before handling actual equipment.
‘The value of Mixed Reality is simple: practice before consequence. It does not replace real-world experience. It prepares people to make better use of it,’ Rachel said.
The researcher, however, warned that this technology could worsen educational inequality if it remained accessible only to elite private schools and well-funded universities. She called for collaboration among the government, universities, industries and technology companies to develop immersive learning solutions suited to Nigeria’s educational and industrial needs.
Rachel further urged Nigerian researchers and software developers to develop locally relevant Mixed Reality applications rather than relying entirely on imported technologies. She argued that while the technology would not replace teachers, laboratories, or hands-on industrial training, it could serve as a bridge between theory and practice, stressing that ‘perhaps the factory tomorrow should not begin at the factory gate. Perhaps it should begin in the classroom.’