Facebook announces launch of 'metaverse academies' across France

Facebook's parent company Meta and a French digital training firm will launch a "metaverse academy" in France for the new academic year, the two organisations announced on Sunday.

REUTERS - DADO RUVIC

The metaverse is the real world, only better. It's going to be the next big thing and is centred on 3D virtual reality.

The school's goal in its first year will be to train around 100 students in two roles, specialist immersive technology developers and support and assistance technicians, Meta's vice president for southern Europe Laurent Solly has explained. Training will be free.

Teaching will be in-person and project based, with a focus on the 3D world and interactions in the virtual universes, said Frederic Bardeau, co-founder and boss of Simplon, the French firm working with Meta.

Located in the capital Paris and other cities including Lyon, Marseille and Nice, the metaverse academy will train 20 students per city each year.

Only thirty places for women?

Particular attention will be paid to diversity. Solly said the target was for 30 percent of the first cohort to be women, while Bardeau said he would endorse positive discrimination.

In October 2021, Meta said it intended to create 10,000 jobs in Europe in five years' time to build the metaverse, the US technology giant's new strategic priority.

The goal is tied to predictions that future job skills demanded by employers will be closely tied with the metaverse.

Meta and Simplon said 80 percent of the careers that will exist in 2030 have not been invented yet, highlighting the need to develop training schemes now.