My guest this week is our very own Joe Mansfield, who heads up our Virtual Labs team as the lead technical content developer here at SureSkills.

Joe and his team are building virtual lab training for some of the world’s leading organizations, and I thought it would be cool to have him on to discuss what has become a highly sought-after service.

Joe and his team, and virtualized labs generally, have revolutionized lab training in some ways.  

Hands-on lab training was historically challenging for a number of reasons. They required extensive, costly set-up, endless machine maintenance, a rigid, in-person schedule, a lack of instructor oversight. All of this meant they were impossible to scale and frustratingly impractical and really expensive.

Joe and his team, however, have created an antidote to basically all of the historical challenges of lab-based training. They build cloud-native virtual labs that are available anytime, anywhere, and are infinitely scalable, all while providing an enhanced learning experience. And of course, they cater to the increasingly remote nature of workplaces and workplace training.

They have built some high profile labs for high-profile companies, these virtual labs are becoming hugely popular. I thought it would be cool to have Joe on to chat about some of the ways he and his team think about the service they provide.

In our chat, we talk about the basics, and Joe gives us an overview of why these virtual labs are in such high demand.

We discuss:

• the basics of virtual labs
• how virtual labs provide immersive learning experiences
• the ability to replicate real environments to enhance retention of information
• how tracking facilitates real learning
• all the ways virtual labs can be used as a scalable tool
• the challenges of satisfying learners through technical training
• allowing people to shine and show their skills through challenge labs

If you'd like to learn more about virtual labs you can head over to our website, and if you'd like to talk with one of our learning experts we offer free initial consultations to explore if virtual labs may be right for you.

To get in touch with me, Simon Behan, reach out on LinkedIn or email me at simon.behan@sureskills.com

Thanks for listening!