Natixis, a subsidiary of the Banque Populaire Caisse d’Epargne (BPCE) group, is investing a few hundred thousand euros in virtual reality to provide immersive training (immersive learning, in English). The company is also a founder – with the National Health Insurance Fund (CNAM), Orange and the University of Paris-Est-Créteil-Val-de-Marne (UPEC) – of the France Immersive Learning association, created in 2018 and devoted to immersive technologies in the fields of orientation, education and training. Some 150 organizations are members.
The BPCE group is thus spurred on by its subsidiary. “Since mid-2022, 5,000 Groupe BPCE employees have received mandatory training in the safety instructions that apply to their new premises. This operation enabled employees to experiment with virtual reality on a large scale. Other training courses are also being studied thanks to the creation of a dedicated “VR Lab” »explains Pascal Aubert, head of digital learning at Natixis.
“Equipment mainly European and French”
If this virtual training primarily concerns fire safety and health rules for professional use, the banking group is also studying all the possibilities offered by these immersion technologies. “Our group has acquired equipment, licenses and has set up a budget for carrying out projects. The equipment and services are mainly European and French”he says.
France Immersive Learning provides the Case application and the coaching material (screen feedback for the facilitator with eight headsets simultaneously); the French company Emissive carries out the main tailor-made projects; the British Mocap Studio records the recordings of characters (actors play the role of avatars then rendered in 3D in VR); Finnish Glue and Irish Engage provide complementary metaverse solutions. As for the helmets, they come from the Taiwanese HTC “pending the availability of those of the French Lynx”.