GWPro

Contact North | Contact Nord — Connecting Learners Across Ontario

About Contact North This non-profit organization, funded by the Government of Ontario, helps people across Ontario — especially in small, rural, northern and remote areas — access education and training without leaving their communities. It works with Ontario's public colleges, universities, Indigenous Institutes, school boards, and other providers.

How They Serve Learners Contact North provides help with choosing and registering in programs and courses, accessing financial aid and using technology. Its free services are available in both English and French, face-to-face in learners' communities, at 350 local access points, or by phone, email, live chat or virtually.

The Challenge: Distance as a Barrier to Opportunity

For many learners in small, rural, northern and remote parts of Ontario, accessing career training is not just difficult — it's expensive and often unrealistic.

Travel Burden Learners pursuing technical certifications typically need to travel long distances to training centres in major cities, paying for accommodation and living expenses. Time Away Accessing urban training requires taking time away from work or family responsibilities, and adapting quickly to unfamiliar environments. Lost Opportunity and Contact North recognized that distance can be a barrier to training opportunities.

Meet GWPro.io — VR Training Delivered to the Learner

GWPro.io is a professional platform offering ready-made VR simulations purpose-built for industry training and workforce development. Instead of requiring learners to travel, Contact North introduced a model that brings training closer to learners by providing education partners with access to Pico 6-dof VR headsets, preloaded with training modules and centrally managed through ArborXR MDM.

The result is a shift from centralized training to distributed, learner-first access — allowing learners to build skills and prepare for certification closer to home.

Train Locally Learners train in familiar environments, practising real-world procedures through immersive simulations at their own pace

Prepare for Certification

• Learners prepare for certification exams before traveling, building confidence and competence without leaving their communities

• Reducing the Cost of Career Entry

• This approach can help reduce some of the costs associated with training. By using VR training before certification, learners and communities see meaningful financial relief.

  Fewer Trips Required Learners reduce the number of trips required to urban centres — travel and accommodation costs are significantly lowered. Better Exam Readiness Learners arrive better prepared, reducing the risk of failed exams and making training more predictable and accessible. Access to Career Paths For many participants, this makes the difference between pursuing a career path and not pursuing it at all.

The Contact North and GWPro.io partnership demonstrates what's possible when workforce development embraces the tools of the future — ensuring that distance is never a barrier to career opportunity.

About WECA

The Western Electrical Contractors Association (WECA) is a leading provider of electrical apprenticeship training in the United States, serving both the education and construction sectors. Their commitment to the highest standards supports all electrical and low voltage contractors and workers across the country. They focus on innovation in workforce development, education, and contractor business services. Through strong political advocacy, they champion free-market growth and merit-based competition throughout the industry.

Their Programs

WECA programs cover commercial, residential, and low-voltage electrical training, typically spanning three to five years. Each year, WECA supports approximately 1,400 apprentices—adult learners who are simultaneously gaining on-the-job training (OJT) with contractors while progressing through structured classroom education.

A Strategic Approach: Strengthening an Already Strong Curriculum

WECA has long prioritized hands-on, high-quality instruction, combining classroom learning with real-world jobsite experience. Their curriculum team has also invested in in-house XR development, creating immersive learning experiences tailored to their programs.

The Foundation

Rather than replacing or rethinking their training model, WECA identified an opportunity to extend and enrich it — building on measurable benefits in learner engagement and retention.

The Coverage Gap

After seeing benefits from their own XR content, the team looked to expand coverage — particularly in construction safety, hazard recognition, and incident response scenarios.

The Clear Goal

Add depth and variety to an already strong curriculum — without diverting internal resources away from specialized content development.

Why GWPro

To achieve this, WECA partnered with GWPro.io, whose catalog of ready-made VR training scenarios provided an efficient way to:

• Introduce additional safety-focused modules aligned with industry needs
• Complement existing in-house XR content
• Quickly integrate new training experiences into the curriculum

This approach allowed WECA to maintain focus on developing proprietary content while leveraging GWPro to broaden the range of available training scenarios.

~1,400 Apprentices/Year, 3–5 Year Programs

What Was Implemented: Immersive VR as a Supplemental Learning Tool

GWPro simulations are used as instructor-led, classroom-based experiences that reinforce key concepts and provide structured opportunities for practice.

• Risk & Hazard Identification
• Accident & Incident Scenarios
• Repeatable Practice & Review

These simulations are not a replacement for hands-on or jobsite learning. Instead, they serve as a repeatable and standardized complement to both classroom instruction and OJT.

Over time, many instructors began using GWPro scenarios not just once—but repeatedly—as practice and review tools, reinforcing learning outcomes across cohorts.

Deployment at Scale: A Connected VR Environment

To support implementation across its programs, WECA deployed more than 150 VR headsets — all Meta Quest devices — each equipped with the full GWPro VR training library.

150+ Meta Quest Headsets A large-scale fleet of Meta Quest devices, each pre-loaded with the complete GWPro VR training library for immediate classroom use.

ArborXR Device Management Centralized device and application management — enabling streamlined deployment, updates, and efficient license distribution across all users.

Consistent Access Across Classrooms A scalable, well-organized VR environment that integrates smoothly into WECA's existing training operations — ensuring every apprentice accesses the same high-quality content.

"GWPro has demonstrated thorough dedication to providing not only a quality product but also quality client relations, and we look forward to continuing to work with them."

Western Electrical Contractors Association (WECA)

We are thrilled to announce the partnership with RTC Antwerpen and the other RTC's in Flanders. They started one of the largest VR training integrations of GWPRO content: 1026 devices in 690 schools!The VR training will be deployed on the PICO XR headsets with the help of ArborXR management system. RTC Antwerpen and the other RTC's help build quality education at the education-labour market interface by carrying out various actions aimed at innovation in education. One such action is the XR-action plan launched by the Flemish government, in line with the vision note "From vulnerable to resilient".From 1 September 2023, the Regional Technology Centres (RTCs) will make XR hardware available for the schools to borrow, after attending training at the XR Academy. Schools are able to borrow the hardware for free during this and the next schoolyear. RTC will also provide a library of content. This way, RTC aims to get 150.000 students to experience XR in their education. Students are able to train in way that wasn't possible before. GWPRO is providing software to extend the library.