On Tuesday, HP and the DiSTI Corporation announced a partnership to provide cost-effective virtual reality (VR) training for enterprises, with a focus on maintenance and operations training for vehicles, aircraft, and industrial equipment.

Advances in VR and augmented reality (AR) have made the technologies more of a reality for enterprise training purposes in recent years. Companies such as WalMart and UPS have rolled out initiatives in VR training, helping new employees master their jobs more quickly and with higher quality and safety. For example, at UPS, new drivers use VR headsets to simulate city driving conditions during training.

However, there is still a long way to go before they are anywhere close to commonplace in most business scenarios, analysts report.

SEE: Virtual and augmented reality policy (Tech Pro Research)

Still, VR training is expected to grow to an $18 billion market by 2022, offering workers a new, more participatory form of learning that may be more effective than traditional training programs.

HP and DiSTI will offer end-to-end enterprise VR training solutions, based on HP’s VR-ready hardware (like the Z VR Backpack and the HP Z8 Workstation) and DiSTI’s VE Studio Development Platform, according to a press release. Customers can use the VE Studio suite to develop their own VR training applications, or get assistance doing so from the companies.

“There is tremendous market demand for enterprise-level virtual training solutions that can be rapidly implemented, are cost effective and can be developed and managed by internal staff,” John Cunningham, chief revenue officer of DiSTI, said in a press release. “Many companies have identified the need to implement VR enabled training but struggle with how to get started and scale due to the lack of internal expertise and the availability of cost-effective solutions. We are excited to combine our two companies’ VR expertise to accelerate industry adoption of VR Training.”

The big takeaways for tech leaders:

  • HP and the DiSTI Corporation will provide VR training for enterprises, with a focus on maintenance and operations training for vehicles, aircraft, and industrial equipment.
  • VR training is expected to grow to an $18 billion market by 2022.