Bringing Brilliance and Hope: Jerry Jones Discusses Career Training Through Virtual Reality

Host Trae Holiday sat down for a virtual conversation with Jerry Jones, the state workforce manager at Transfr, a learning platform helping students and job seekers find pathways to meaningful, well-paying careers. Holiday and Jones discussed the company's work in career training through virtual reality and the accessible and high-paying career paths it forges. 

Jones, who has a background of 25 years in education as both a teacher and a school site principal, shared his gratitude for the relationships that have shaped his journey. His personal mission to help everybody reach their potential aligned perfectly with Transfr's mission: "upward mobility for all.”

Transfr's innovative approach centers around overcoming a critical barrier in career development. "You can't be what you can't see,” Jones explained, excited at the prospect of literally making these careers visible using virtual reality.  

The company provides a career mobility system, a program that uses an interest inventory to match individuals with over 140 different career pathways. The core of their work is the virtual reality simulations, allowing users to walk through a day in the life of their desired occupation. 

Jones addressed the skepticism surrounding new technologies, especially virtual reality, reassuring viewers that the experience is not intimidating or difficult to utilize, and is explicitly designed to allow individuals to open doors that would otherwise remain closed. 

For Jones, his work at Transfr is deeply rewarding because it provides hope and practical skills to an up-and-coming generation of passionate workers. He stated that the current lack of qualified people for many jobs means that there is a void to fill, and Tranfr is taking big strides and doing so with modern solutions that have the potential to make aspiration a reality.

"Hope is a big thing... but not just hope, we need to give them the skills and the confidence to be able to do those things,” he said. 

Learn more about Transfr at transfrinc.com, social media, and LinkedIn. 

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