LifeX aimed to enhance the Personal, Social, and Learning to Learn competences of the European workforce through the development of a suite of attractive and engaging immersive training resources namely: 1.) three VR scenarios benchmarked against LifeComp; 2.) eTools for assessment; 3.) pedagogic strategy and 4.) a toolkit of activities to be used by VET trainers. LifeX endeavoured to advance the pedagogic approach to soft skills training via VR, and aid educators and trainers on how to integrate VR into their soft skills training curricula. Over the 24 months, the project team worked diligently to achieve these objectives, ultimately making strides in leveraging VR technology to enhance the skillsets of individuals within the workforce. During its implementation, LifeX actively supported 233 stakeholders from various vocational sectors to ensure alignment with evolving workforce demands and piloted the VR scenarios in diverse settings. Through collaborative efforts, the project team continuously improved the effectiveness and accessibility of its VR-based soft skills training through several iterations of testing and refinement, and facilitated knowledge exchange and best practice sharing among educators impacting on their CPD.
The European Reference Framework for Key Competences for Lifelong Learning states that “in a rapidly changing and highly interconnected world, each person will need a wide range of skills and competences and to develop them continually throughout life”. The expectation is for “high-quality education, training, and lifelong learning for all, to support educational staff in implementing competency-based teaching and learning approaches, to promote a range of learning contexts from the perspective of lifelong learning, and to explore approaches to the assessment and validation of key competences”. In the post-pandemic era, citizens need to “be able to reflect on and develop their personal, social, and learning to learn competencies" (LifeComp). LifeX was designed on the LifeComp Framework and aimed to have a positive impact on European workplaces, by contributing to workforce upskilling in the “Personal, Social, and Learning to Learn” competence through a competence-oriented virtual reality training methodology, focused on providing Immersive Learning Experiences (ILx) designed to train this competence in a dynamic and innovative way. LifeX is one of the first projects to use VR in the field of soft skills development and training.