The city of Crawfordsville has announced a tech partnership with Indianapolis-based Vision Three to bring a virtual reality career lab to the city.
According to city officials, the lab will be the first of its kind in the state - offering students the ability to explore different careers virtually.
Crawfordsville Mayor Todd Barton said it’s difficult to get students in the room to observe jobs in the physical world. He says the VR lab will offer an opportunity to do that in virtual spaces.
“It is so incredibly difficult to get these kids into these businesses and industries to see the things you want them to see,” he said. “We’ve tried. But there may be opportunities that may not be in our region that they want to explore.”
Barton said the city also plans to build a virtual Crawfordsville so they can give potential investors a chance to tour the city without having to visit.
“What we know is when we have a site visit, or we get companies to visit our community, our success rate is very high,” he said. “If we can expand those opportunities by doing it in the virtual space - in other words, you ship them the virtual goggles and meet them in the virtual space in Crawfordsville - I don’t know if our success rate will be as high as when they really come here, but it’s worth a shot.”
All told, the city will pay $116,560 over two years to equip the lab and build out a virtual Crawfordsville.
The virtual lab, which will include 24 VR headset kiosks, is expected to launch sometime in late January 2023.
