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In today’s hyper-competitive and increasingly digital world, human skills have become more important than ever. Success in the job market is often steered by soft skills like communication and teamwork, leading to them also being referred to as “employability skills”.
Employability skills represent personal attributes that make someone not only capable of doing a job, but thriving and succeeding in a work environment.
Unfortunately, these skills can be among some of the hardest ones to teach. And traditional training approaches like lectures and classroom exercises aren’t necessarily designed for soft skills. Often people have to learn “on the job” but with the state of the job market and the decreasing number of entry-level positions or placement/apprenticeship opportunities, this type of learning is becoming scarcer. It’s vital to give people an alternative to learn, practice, and solidify essential employability skills.
And that’s where virtual reality comes in. VR can simulate real work scenarios in immersive, realistic environments to offer safe, repeatable practice.
In this blog we’ll dive deeper into what employability skills are, why they matter for employability, the challenges of teaching them, and finally how VR can help. We’ll also offer some advice on how to get started with VR for employability skills.
What are employability skills?
Employability skills – often called soft, transferable, or core skills – describe a wide number of interpersonal and cognitive habits which can be applied to any type of work, no matter the sector or level.
Some examples of employability skills:
- Communication (verbal, written, nonverbal)
- Teamwork / collaboration
- Leadership / influencing
- Time management & organisation
- Adaptability / flexibility / resilience
- Problem-solving & critical thinking
- Emotional intelligence / interpersonal sensitivity
- Professionalism, self-motivation & work ethic
While technical skills may secure an interview, studies show that soft skills are often the determining factor in long-term success and differentiate candidates in hiring decisions.
Why soft skills matter for employability
Hard skills are, of course, essential; especially in vocational, trade, and technical fields. However, a lack of focus on soft skills in favour of technical skills can do a disservice to learners. Harvard Business Review reported how 59% of hiring managers and 89% of executives had difficulty recruiting candidates with key soft skills, such as communication, teamwork, and leadership.
Additionally, in certain sectors the rise of AI and other technologies are causing a shift in how roles are laid out. AI and similar technologies rely on human agency and cognitive processing that machine intelligence is not capable of replicating, underscoring the importance of human skills. Ultimately, while the pace of automation is shifting technical tasks, human judgement, leadership, communication and empathy become ever valuable.
In short: in the eyes of employers, strong soft skills often serve as a differentiator when many candidates have similar technical credentials.
The challenges of improving employability skills through traditional methods
Traditional training methods like role-playing and lectures often fall short. Role-plays can feel unnatural, prompting participants to perform rather than react genuinely under pressure. This artificiality, coupled with the passive nature of lectures, leads to low engagement and hinders effective "learning by doing."
Furthermore, traditional approaches face significant limitations in practice and scalability. Constraints in instructor supervision, scheduling, and resources restrict the number of practice repetitions available. Feedback is also compromised, as human observers may miss subtle nonverbal cues, tonal variations, and nuanced interaction details. Adding to these challenges, the psychological pressure and fear of judgment when performing in front of peers can deter participants from experimenting and fully engaging in the learning process.
This is where VR comes in…
How VR soft skills training can boost employability
Below we’ll run through just a few of the top examples of how VR soft skills training can boost employability.
Job interview training with VR
One of the most common anxieties for job seekers is interviews — what question will come next? How should I respond? How do I manage stress? VR offers an environment where individuals can repeatedly practise interviews, experiencing all the scary details like interviewers’ facial expressions, interruptions, tough questions, and follow-up probes, without fear of real world repercussions.
For example, Bodyswaps offers our Job Interview AI roleplay. This customisable AI roleplay template empowers educators to create interview scenarios for their learners: uploading job descriptions, creating questions or generating them with AI, allowing follow-up questions, choosing avatars, environments, and more.
And Bodyswaps has proven impact on job interview skills:
- At Sandwell College, 84% of participating students reported feeling more confident before interviews after using Bodyswaps VR modules.
- University of Liverpool student Anna Martin credited her VR practice via Bodyswaps for helping her secure an internship by improving composure and technique.
Developing leadership and teamwork skills
VR allows creation of group challenges and scenarios that mimic workplace dynamics, such as conflict resolution, resource allocation, crisis management, or cross-functional projects. Bodyswaps’ Talented Teamwork module is a great example of this; placing learners into a range of different team-based work-related situations to build key aspects of teamwork skills.
In corporate contexts, companies are adopting VR to train conflict resolution, leadership presence, and inclusive behavior.
Unlike in-classroom practice of these skills, VR allows for a level of immersion that helps to replicate the real experience of these skills. By simulating high-stakes scenarios, VR enables “learning by doing” in safe but realistic settings.
Communication and presentation skills
Effective communication is more than just words — tone, body language, timing, listening, adaptability to the audience, and handling interruptions all matter. VR can help individuals learn and practise these intricacies.
In VR, learners can present to virtual audiences and receive feedback on pacing, eye contact, gestures, clarity, and engagement. And Bodyswaps takes that feedback even further, with our eponymous “body-swap” feature. In our Public Speaking and Presentation Skills module, learners can swap bodies with avatars to watch back their own performance – allowing them to see where the feedback came from in their own eyes, enhancing self-awareness.
Benefits of VR training for employability skills
So what exactly does VR bring to employability training?
Immersive and engaging learning experience
Immersion is one of VR’s biggest strengths: participants feel present in the scenario, which triggers more natural responses and emotional investment. Many learners report that VR feels “real” and triggers genuine stress, decision-making, and reactions — closer to on-the-job experiences.
This investment helps users connect to the material and the learning, resulting in better outcomes when compared to classroom or e-learning.
Personalised feedback and real-time improvement
VR training allows for the capture of detailed metrics that can help break down overall performance, such as filler words, timing, eye contact, and more. It can then provide instant feedback personalised to each individual’s performance.
Some platforms take this further, using AI to enhance both training and feedback. Bodyswaps, for instance, offers AI-driven roleplay feedback and customisable AI roleplays for repeatable practice which can be tailored by educators to suit their learners’ needs, contexts, and goals.
Overcoming common learning barriers
VR eliminates certain limitations that come with traditional training environments. Some of the common learning barriers VR can help overcome include:
- Scheduling / logistics: Learners can access VR modules asynchronously (depending on implementation), reducing the need for coordinated class time.
- Scalability: The same VR scenario can be reused across many users, reducing incremental cost per learner.
- Psychological safety: Because the environment is virtual, learners can experiment, make mistakes, and practice without fear of real-world judgment.
- Standardisation: Every learner experiences the same baseline scenario, ensuring consistency in training.
- Real-world fidelity: VR can simulate workplace contexts (offices, meeting rooms, client environments), giving context that “classroom-only” methods often lack.
Scalable and cost-effective training solutions
While the initial set up of VR can come with a large investment, VR training often becomes more cost-effective over time. And in educational institutions where there’s already the technology in place, software platforms for VR soft skills training slot well into existing immersive labs.
Real world examples of VR in employability skills development
We’ve been through the theory and the research, here’s some examples in action:
Job interview simulations for job seekers
George Brown College in Toronto used Bodyswaps’ VR interview simulator to give students a safe space to practice and boost their confidence. The results were so positive that the college expanded the program and even co-developed new modules with Bodyswaps.
Sandwell College in the UK introduced Bodyswaps’ VR employability modules to help students practice interview and soft skills in a safe, immersive setting. After piloting, over 80% of students recommended the training and 84% reported greater confidence ahead of interviews.
At the University of Salford, 100 undergraduate students used Bodyswaps’ VR simulations to practice real-life interview scenarios. Many described the experience as “very real,” noting how precise feedback and unexpected questioning pushed them to improve. Students reported reduced interview stress and increased confidence in applying soft skills like communication.
The Regina Work Preparation Centre, a nonprofit helping job seekers in Canada, embedded Bodyswaps’ VR interview simulations into its job readiness workshops. They found the immersive training especially effective for neurodiverse learners, newcomers to Canada, and clients for whom English isn’t their first language—helping users grasp local interview norms and subtle language nuances.
Leadership and soft skills for corporate training
Walmart rolled out VR training across its U.S. stores, using Oculus headsets with modules from STRIVR to teach both soft skills (like empathy and customer service) and technical procedures. They reported 10–15% boosts in test scores, improved retention, and greater learner confidence—even observers noted performance gains.
Bank of America became the first U.S. financial services firm to deploy VR training across all ~4,300 of its retail branches. Its modules cover both technical tasks and soft skills—such as navigating difficult conversations, deepening client relationships, and showing empathy. After a pilot with 400 employees, 97% said they felt more comfortable performing their roles.
How to get started with VR soft skills training
Looking to implement VR for soft skills training at your institution? Here’s a short guide, using Bodyswaps as the example platform.
- Define objectives & use cases
- What employability skills are you targeting (e.g. interview practice, communication, leadership)?
- Who are your learners (students, jobseekers, employees)?
- What outcomes/metrics will you track (confidence, assessment scores, job placement)?
- Pilot with a small cohort / early adopters
- Start with a manageable group to test logistics, technology, and user support.
- Choose a confident class or “champions” to champion adoption. (Many of those who have piloted Bodyswaps, like Buckinghamshire College Group, advise starting small)
- Focus on wide-appealing content first - i.e. Bodyswaps Job Interview AI Roleplay
- Hardware & setup logistics
- Acquire VR headsets (e.g. Meta Quest, Pico, etc.) or compatible devices.
- Set up dedicated spaces (booths, labs) or mobile carts.
- Provide headset orientation / training sessions.
- Ensure technical support and hygiene/cleaning protocols.
- Integrate into curriculum / training plans
- Embed VR sessions within existing career development / employability programmes.
- Blend VR modules with debrief, discussion, mentor coaching, and follow-up reflection.
- Measure impact & refine
- Collect learner feedback and assessment metrics (pre/post surveys, performance in VR, improvements)
- Track whether improved confidence correlates with actual job outcomes (e.g. interview success, placement)
- Iterate scenarios, fine-tune difficulty levels, and expand module library.
- Scale and institutionalise
- Expand to additional cohorts, disciplines, or campuses.
- Train tutors/instructors to independently manage VR sessions and content.
- Explore funding, grants, or partnerships for expansion (many institutions partner for funding).
- Maintain updates, version upgrades, and scenario refreshes to stay relevant.
Chat to the Bodyswaps team today to discuss setting up your very own pilot and see how VR can impact employability skills for your learners.
Conclusion
In an era where technical knowledge alone isn’t enough to guarantee employability, developing strong soft skills is non-negotiable. Traditional training methods often fall short due to lack of realism, engagement, repeatability, and scalable feedback.
VR-based soft skills training, particularly via platforms like Bodyswaps, offers a powerful alternative: immersive, repeatable, feedback-rich environments that allow learners to build confidence, test strategies, and improve continuously.
If you’re seeking to improve employability outcomes for students, jobseekers, or employees, consider adopting VR training as part of a blended learning journey. Start small, measure impact, and scale thoughtfully.
