On the 3rd of November 2026 (between 11:30–12:30), I participated in the 17th NEM Summit 2026, held in Valencia, Spain, as part of the panel discussion “Capacity-building in media: XR, AI, and new training needs for media professionals”. The discussion focused on the transformation of the media industry through Artificial Intelligence (AI), Extended Reality (XR), and virtual worlds, highlighting the growing need for technical, creative, interdisciplinary, and ethical competencies. I presented the main objectives of the ViWAS project, a four-year initiative co-funded by the Digital Europe Programme, bringing together 39 beneficiary and associated partners from 16 European countries to establish a sustainable European skills ecosystem for immersive technologies.
I emphasised the importance of reskilling and upskilling media professionals through innovative training approaches, including immersive learning environments, AI-supported educational tools, and collaborative virtual spaces. I highlighted how ViWAS aims to address existing skills gaps by developing a European Competence and Qualifications Framework, flexible training programmes, and Teach-the-Teacher activities targeting 300 instructors. The discussion also addressed challenges related to accessibility, standardisation, educational effectiveness, and collaboration between academia, industry, and society. A key message was that XR is not only a technology that professionals need to learn, but also a powerful tool for transforming how they learn, enabling more interactive, practical, and inclusive educational experiences.
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