Fife College students in Rosyth will be able to reach new heights with the launch of a virtual reality laboratory.
Pupils will be among the first in the world to experience ultra-realistic training environments on a offshore wind turbine, unveiled by Dunfermline MSP Shirley-Anne Somerville today (Thursday).
The unique equipment combines the real and virtual worlds so that users can see their own hands and feet, tools and manuals, whilst at the top of 110m turbine in the middle of the north sea.
Combined with the sounds of wind and changing weather it provides the most realistic training ground and inspires the next generation of engineers.
Shirley-Anne Somerville, Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science, said: " It will no doubt be the skills and confidence of our workforce that help us build a stronger economy going forward and it is therefore right that we continue to invest in projects like this.
"We want to change then old, traditional perceptions of engineering and having inspiring kit like this is integral to that objective."
The 'Immersive Hybrid Reality' (iHR) laboratory has been developed by the Energy Skills Partnership, Heriot-Watt University and Middlesbrough-based visualisation specialists, Animmersion UK, in partnership with the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult.
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