Limited English
Makes technical training hard to follow.
New Americans in LTC
How VR and AI prepared a new generation of CNAs in Minnesota
VR & AI · Long-term care workforce
The context
A workforce shortage, and a community ready to fill it
Minnesota's long-term care sector faces a chronic shortage of staff. At the same time, many New Americans — people born outside the U.S., and their children — are looking for a way into a stable healthcare career. New Americans in LTC was built to connect those two facts.
It is a consortium: the SCSC works alongside the Minnesota Council of Churches, Mankato Adult Basic Education, Blue Earth County Employment Services and CILC, with MetaMedicsVR providing the virtual reality, AI and mobile technology behind the training.
The challenge
Four barriers at once
For many New Americans, the obstacle is not ability — it is everything around it:
Lack of resources
Transportation, childcare, housing.
Support systems
Hard to navigate (SNAP, MFIP…).
LTC shortage
A sector that needs staff.
Two problems, one answer.
The long-term care workforce shortage, and the integration of New Americans into stable, well-paid healthcare careers.
What we built
Three things at once: support, training and a job
Support services
Transportation, housing, childcare, interpreters (Spanish and Somali) and guidance through public programs.
Bilingual VR training
Medical terminology, healthcare communication and cultural adaptation, in the learner’s own language.
Job placement
Partnerships with 10+ LTC facilities, virtual job fairs and one-on-one follow-up.
Why it matters
A repeatable path from newcomer to certified caregiver
By pairing wraparound social support with VR and AI training in a learner’s own language, it turns a population that traditional training tends to leave behind into a pipeline of CNAs and allied health workers — a model that can be repeated wherever both needs exist.
If you recognise your own situation here, let's talk about how it could work for you.
GET STARTED
See what the next generation of healthcare training looks like.
Whether you run a faculty, a residency program, a clinical training department, or a continuing education operation — a 20-minute demo, tailored to your context, is the fastest way to know if this fits.
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