The challenge
How do you keep awareness of risk alive?
Ørsted faced a persistent challenge within industrial safety: How do they keep awareness of risk alive in environments where routine has dulled viligance, and where near-misses are brushed aside because "nothing really happened"?
The Ørsted Risk Awareness VR Training is an immersive learning experience designed to enhance safety awareness among our operational staff and our contractors. Developed in collaboration with Cadpeople, the training places participants in a virtual scenario where they are moved away from habitation to risks to recognizing imminent risks through recognition of the hazards. This approach aims to shift risk perception from routine to active vigilance by provoking emotional responses and fostering a deeper understanding of key risk controls.
Jesper Bagge Hansen, Head of QHSE Enterprise Risk & Assurance, QHSE Data, Enterprise Risk & Assurance, EPC, Ørsted
The solution
Reimagining risk
After extensive workshops and deep dives into data, organisation, and expertise, we created a VR experience that begins where no one wants to end up: in a hospital bed.
The learner wakes up after a workplace accident and must relive the moments that led to it. It’s a journey through high-risk scenarios, where each decision matters. The goal is to “come back to life” by understanding what went wrong and how to do better next time. It’s emotional, realistic and, yes, a little uncomfortable.
A NEW TAKE ON RISK AWARENESS
Let's break it down:
LEARNING THAT HITS HOME
Rather than relying on logic and checklists, this training speaks to emotion. Ørsted wanted their technicians to feel the consequence of missing safety, because lasting change happens when you experience it first-hand.
TRAINING THAT FEELS REAL
The aim was to deliver realistic risk training inspired by real incidents. VR was the perfect choice, allowing technicians to experience dangerous situations in a safe, controlled environment that still feels uncomfortably close to reality.
MEET THE TEAM
The x factor - why VR?
One of the biggest misconceptions about using virtual reality for learning is that it is a passive tool for content consumption.
Study shows that experiences are experiences – no matter if you experience in the real or the virtual world, the experience is captured in your mind and body the same way. And because our virtual body and behaviour can positively impact what our body does in the real world, we utilised the benefits of VR for this immersive, emotional, and behaviour-changing kind of training.
Thomas, Art Director
Søren, Developer
Lonnie, Project Manager
Thomas, Client Relations & Business Development
Katrine, Learning Specialist
Matthew, 3D production
Klaus, developer
Brett, 3D production
Jonas, 3D Project Manager
The evaluation
What does the target audience think?
Together with Ørsted, we have tested the VR training scenarios on the target audience ongoingly to adjust and finetune – and to make the scenarios as attention-grabbing, immersive, and close to reality as possible.
This is what the target audience thinks of training their risk awareness in VR:
I'm much more focused in this type of learning than I normally am - I definitely see the purpose of using VR in training.
Test person within target group, Technician, Ørsted
VR provides a good learning environment - you sort of shut out all other thoughts and focus only on the learning.
Test person within target group, Technician, Ørsted
I believe any kind of training sticks better when you see and experience it yourself - so I think I'll remember this VR training better in the future.
Test person within target group, Technician, Ørsted
VR can show reality as it is - neither more or less. So, I can easily see the potential of using VR for training purposes.
Test person within target group, Technician, Ørsted
The perspective
Immerse the user and make an impression
In a company where safety is a core value, this experience does more than train. It transforms. By turning awareness into action, and action into culture, Ørsted is building a safer future from the inside out.
We use VR to do more than impress, we use it to create meaningful learning experiences. Whether it’s simulating high-risk scenarios or bringing complex ideas to life at exhibitions, VR helps people not just understand, but feel. And that’s where real change begins.
We also got to help activate the solution internally in Ørsted
PSST… THERE’S MORE.
