How Virtual Reality Is Transforming Learning and Development: An Interview with Josh Ellick from St. James’s Place

​​At St. James’s Place, Josh is using virtual reality to bring soft skills to life. From building confidence to handling sensitive conversations, Josh Ellick sits down with Lizzie Finch in an exclusive interview to show how he’s proving that immersive learning can drive real-world impact.

1. Can you explain a little more about your role within the L&D team at St. James’s Place?

Of course! So, I am an Immersive Technology Manager at SJP. It’s a bit of a weird and wonderful job title, but essentially, I manage the design development and delivery of virtual reality and AI-related content. When I started the role, it almost felt like a weird mix — I felt like Christmas came early in that I was opening and setting up 50 brand new VR headsets, but I was also managing logistics and overcoming scepticism. It was about finding ways to show the objective impact and the value that virtual reality can have — turning a “no, you can’t do that” into a “how can we make this work”.

2. How is St. James’s Place using VR in its learning programmes?

We use VR in our learning programmes to train financial advisors, particularly focusing on those completely new to the business. The initial VR training, which we deliver through an academy program, helps advisors, many of whom had never worked in client-facing roles before,  build confidence and develop soft skills like active listening and rapport-building through 3 initial role-play scenarios. The training had quite a positive impact, so we expanded it to a broader range of soft skills, using body swaps, including public speaking, negotiation, conflict management, communication skills, teamwork, and collaboration. Following this, we developed a role-play scenario for 9,000 financial advisors to handle vulnerable clients, addressing issues like dementia. They’re quite sensitive topics that require a lot of empathy and can be difficult to train on, but have become more of a focus because of the Financial Conduct Authority and its guidance around consumer duty. Seeing examples of vulnerable clients through the simulation opens people’s eyes to how horrible it can be to go through something like that, how it affects their loved ones and family. Of course, the advisors can’t take away their pain, but there are things that they can do to make clients' lives a lot easier and help protect them from certain levels of harm, which is important that we do.

3. Why do you think VR is becoming such a powerful tool in Learning & Development?

There are things that VR is really good for, and there are things that VR isn’t good for. Developing telephone and Excel skills, for example, VR doesn’t really make sense. However, it is really powerful and effective in high-pressure scenarios, such as public speaking, where it can simulate a live audience to provide immersive practice in delivering timed presentations, for example. There are certain things you can do in a VR simulation which you couldn’t in a real-life learning scenario, like watching yourself back via body swaps to see how you’ve delivered a presentation. You’re not only getting external feedback, you’re able to assess your own delivery too. VR simulations also measure things like crescendo, pitch and eye contact, which are really great indicators of someone’s public speaking ability. The feedback you get from it is really actionable on articulation, projection, intonation, and body language. A 2020 PwC study revealed a 375% increase in emotional connection in VR compared to classroom learning, highlighting its impact on behaviour change. VR’s ability to create visceral experiences, such as understanding mental health struggles or dealing with discrimination, can really boost learners’ understanding of these important issues and motivate them to be more people-conscious.

4. What are some of the challenges you have experienced with delivering VR?

One of the biggest challenges with VR is that opinion is divided — some people are really excited about it, whilst others see it as a bit of a gimmick, not really understanding its value. However, it’s these conversations that I lean into the most as I think they’re very important to have. After all, it’s those who are sceptical that we need to try and engage the most. Many employees have never used this technology before, so the scepticism is understandable. To try and create a comfortable environment for practice, we lent headsets over 12-week periods where employees could use them at home. Despite this, we only had 30% engagement on the VR academy. To address this, workshops and drop-in sessions were introduced, increasing adoption to 70%. Ultimately, you can try to make it as accessible as you can, but a tool that works for some people won’t work for everyone, which will always be challenging.

5. How can organisations start implementing VR in their learning programmes?

Starting with a broad challenge that you’re trying to solve within the business is key; What are the main learning gaps?  What do people in the business need? What are the common challenges everyone’s facing? Once you understand that a little bit, you can consider starting off with an off-the-shelf solution. When you’re experimenting with new technology, there are always challenges you won't have anticipated, so I would say that it’s probably not cost-effective to begin with a bespoke solution with loads of headsets. I’d recommend starting with around five headsets and testing off-the-shelf programmes, and see how well they serve your company using metrics to measure the programme’s success. This can be done using something as simple as MS Forms, but it’s key that you do because it’s that objective data that’s really going to show the technology’s value in your company.

6. How do you measure the results of VR training- what tells you it’s working?

Because VR can be seen as a gimmick and a novel way to learn, I think, while it is a fun and new way to learn, there has to be value; otherwise, what’s the point? A good example of measurement for me to share is our vulnerability training. We know from a ‘Financial Lives Survey’ done by the FCA, 40% of working adults in the UK are experiencing at least one vulnerability at any given time. At SJP, around 11% of our clients were recorded as vulnerable — this shows there is a big gap between our data and the results of the survey, meaning that there were vulnerable people not being identified by our employees. With the use of data, we were able to increase the number of recognised vulnerable clients by 20%. That amounted to 74 people getting the correct support they needed. Using the power of data became an influential tool to get buy-in from senior stakeholders.

Another point is understanding the tech side. Our feedback cycles are really important to us as they allow us to understand the stats and draw up comparison points. Testimonials are hugely important to us as well because they are less objective and more subjective, so they really allow you to connect and understand the client’s perspectives.

7. What’s one standout impact you’ve seen since bringing VR into your programmes?

For me, the most valuable thing is having the ability to help people practice real-world scenarios. Hearing feedback that implies we’ve helped our clients get over presentation anxiety or build up confidence and feel more empowered – that is a side I really love about my job. As an anxious person myself, letting people practise in a safe place and feel comfortable is really helpful and hearing that we’ve been able to quieten that inner-critic self-talk makes my day and is ultimately why I do all this.

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