This fall, Hyper Island is launching a new diploma program tailored for people who want to learn how to build immersive experiences in augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). We caught up with Jörg Teichgraeber, Head of School at Hyper Island, and asked him four quick-fire questions on the new Extended Reality (XR) Creative Developer program.
Why are Hyper Island launching the XR Creative Developer program?
In one way, you could say that we’re catching the wave created by the buzz around things such as Metaverse and digital twins. But this is also something we’ve been talking about developing for many years and right now we’re seeing a massive increase in industries wanting to hire talent that possess these types of skills. A part of our core values is “Real-World Ready”, so it’s only natural that we continuously create products which will make students attractive to industry employers and ready for the job market.
Who should apply for the XR program?
Anyone who is curious to learn how to build three-dimensionals worlds and next-level user experiences. You should be a person who is eager to explore things, test and fail, and try again.
How the metaverses and other immersive worlds are going to look and feel are still very visionary and things are not set in stone yet. So, this is a program for those that want to be part of mapping out what this future actually looks like. It’s really about breaking new ground.
What jobs are out there for XR creative developers?
When developing this program, we worked closely with the gaming industry, as they are the ones where these types of skills have been needed the longest. But to be honest, the skills you will learn as an XR developer will be sought after from almost any company going forward. Product development, customer experience, and user interface design are a given. But they are also suited to the worlds of HR, finance, and learning and development—the list is long and very broad.
We also believe that the skills you learn in this program will be what the future requires from anyone working in, or leading, innovative organizations. These are not skills that you can pass on to an R&D (research and development) incubator or “let the IT-department” handle. XR will be business crucial for any company in the future and being confident in what it is and how to operate in it will create a clear career advantage.
How do you see the XR program push new learning experiences?
Beyond the obvious, which is building a learning space in a new world, it will also push us in a direction of making more. “Learn By Doing” is at the core of our methodology at Hyper Island and it’s really put to it’s test when we have a new product that hasn’t been tested yet, and where we don’t sit on all the answers. We, together with the students, will get our hands dirty and test and try things. Some beautiful mistakes and failures will happen and out of this, great and groundbreaking ideas will come! And that’s what is so exciting about this.
LEARN MORE AND APPLY FOR THE PROGRAM:
XR Creative Developer
If you want to know more about what skills the future will require, have a read of this blog post by our founder Jonathan Briggs or watch this conversations he has with our CEO Helena Ekman:
