Will Apprenticeships Be Replaced with Online Simulators?

You can now study from home. Will the day come when you can do your apprenticeship at home?

Maybe it’s not as far removed as you think. Take IBM for example, their INNOV8 program has changed the marketplace. Now, thanks to the program, you can simulate a number of technical scenarios to train yourself to handle them in the real world.

“Both IT and business professionals understand that processes are critical to success. They just look at them from different perspectives,” says IBM’s website. “INNOV8, the IBM Business Process Management (BPM) simulation game, gives both IT and business players a better understanding of how effective BPM impacts an entire business ecosystem.”

A recent report called “Education to Employment: Designing a system that works” explores the likely path in which employment and education will likely travel. The report claims that apprenticeships going online is a natural evolution.

“Apprenticeships traditionally have provided hands-on experience, but there are not enough spaces to meet demand. Technology, in the form of ‘serious games’ and other kinds of simulations, can help here, too, by offering tailored, detailed, practical experience to large numbers at a comparatively low cost.”

“Serious-game simulation could become the apprenticeship of the 21st century. In a sense, the future of hands-on learning may well be hands-off.”

What do you think? Is this a good thing, or are there just some lessons you can’t learn online? Leave your comments below.