Background
Vocational education in US schools has been in steady decline for decades, with shop classes, trade workshops, and career-and-technical-education programmes squeezed by tight school budgets and the costs of physical workshop space, tools, and consumables. The result: many secondary and post-secondary students leave education with no hands-on exposure to skilled trades like welding, carpentry, or HVAC work. A CBS News segment by correspondent Bradley Blackburn highlights one university trying to fill that gap with virtual reality.
The deployment
St. John's University in Queens, New York has partnered with education technology startup KreditVerse to launch the St. John's Immersive VR/AI Summer Career Academy, a two-week on-campus onboarding programme followed by a year of extended AI-supported learning. Two cohorts run in summer 2026: ages 13 to 17 from July 13 to July 24, 2026, and ages 18 and over from July 27 to August 6, 2026, with capacity for 125 learners per cohort and a total summer enrollment of 250 students. Orientation day is July 9, 2026.
Hardware and software
Learners use Meta Quest 3S standalone headsets, included with each enrollment, to run KreditVerse's VR and AI curriculum. The platform combines:
- VR career simulations across skilled trades, healthcare, construction, robotics, engineering, and technology pathways
- AI-powered mock job interviews
- An AI tutor (HoloTutor) for personalised learning support
- Immersive financial literacy modules covering budgeting, credit, identity protection, and fraud awareness
- Global VR excursions for educational and cultural contexts
KreditVerse is a Meta Education Solutions Partner and an approved New York and New Jersey Department of Education vendor.
Programme structure
The full 120-hour academy is structured as up to 80 hours of career and technical education, up to 20 hours of applied financial literacy, and up to 20 hours of AI-supported career planning. The on-campus daily schedule runs 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM, with VR career exploration in the morning, financial literacy simulations before lunch, and AI career coaching and global VR excursions in the afternoon. Youth and adult cohorts are kept in separate instructional spaces.
Certification pathway awareness is aligned with NCCER, NOCTI, OSHA 10, FAA Part 107, and certified nursing standards, though no academic credit or licensure is granted by the programme itself.
Education school involvement
A cohort of St. John's University students studying to become teachers is also receiving headsets so that they can incorporate VR-based teaching into their own future classrooms. The CBS News segment featured a freshman trying a VR headset for the first time and an education major commenting on the place of immersive tools alongside traditional pencil-and-paper learning.
Status
The St. John's branded summer academy launches as a pilot in July 2026. KreditVerse states that its broader curriculum is implemented in over 600 schools and universities nationwide; the St. John's deployment is a structured, university-hosted cohort version of that curriculum, marketed jointly under the St. John's brand.
