Meta to open its first global academy in Marseille

Training the future builders of the metaverse

The very first, free, and inclusive school dedicated to training professionals to work with the metaverse will open doors in the north of Marseille, France on 5 December. This was announced by parent company Meta, in partnership with Simplon.co, a social and solidarity-based digital training company, and the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regional authorities.

With this initiative, Meta wants to support job creation and training for new professions related to the metaverse in the southern French region, which has a flourishing digital ecosystem. It is also the world’s first centre to offer free training entirely dedicated to the metaverse – Meta’s flagship futuristic project.

The metaverse needs its own skilled engineers

The metaverse academy will offer a course dedicated to learning the profession of a designer developer specializing in immersive technologies, such as virtual, augmented and mixed reality.

Twenty students will be initially enrolled in the first academy. The first phase of the individual intensive training session will last 3 to 4 months, followed by a second phase of 15 to 16 months on a work-study program within local partner companies of the school. A dozen companies have already committed to recruiting a work-study student at the end of the training program, including Wixar, Abim and Cross the age.

Renaud Muselier, President of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Region and Deputy President of Regions of France stated on the occasion: "By allocating €350,000 to Simplon for the creation of the Metaverse Academy, in partnership with Meta, the South Region is showing all the interest it has in the professions of tomorrow by targeting a specific audience and supporting it towards employment.”

After Marseille, the Metaverse Academy will open its doors in the coming weeks in the French cities of Nice, Lyon and Paris. A total of one hundred students will take part in this first pilot year.