Yeovil College

Yeovil College is a top-performing further education college in Somerset, delivering engineering and manufacturing courses including T Levels and apprenticeships. Teaching precise assembly procedures – like building a vehicle gearbox – presents a real problem: parts are expensive, mistakes are costly, and each student needs hands-on practice time that's difficult to scale.

The college wanted something better: a training tool that gives every student guided, hands-on assembly practice – repeatably, safely, and without queueing for equipment.

In full VR mode, students work with a completely virtual gearbox – learning the assembly sequence, understanding how parts fit together, and building confidence before touching real components. In XR passthrough mode, the headset's cameras show the real workshop while virtual instructions and part highlights overlay the physical gearbox in front of them.

The critical design decision was hand tracking over controllers. Engineering assembly involves small fixings, precise placement, and dexterity – skills that don't translate through a controller. Students use their actual hands throughout, building the same muscle memory they'll use on the job.

Yeovil College now has an engineering training tool that every student can access simultaneously – no waiting for equipment, no risk of damaging expensive parts during early learning. The dual-mode approach lets students progress naturally from virtual practice to guided real-world assembly.

The project demonstrated that mixed reality passthrough training is genuinely practical for hands-on technical education – not just a concept, but a working tool in daily use. It's attracted interest from other education providers exploring immersive learning for practical skills.