Wharton Business School Launches 6-Week Metaverse Course

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The Aresty Institute of Executive Education at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania recently announced it was launching an online course called Business in the Metaverse Economy.

The program is being launched in collaboration with Prysm Group, an economic consulting firm that focuses on nascent and rising technologies. The course will be geared toward all types of business and technology professionals who wish to understand more about the metaverse and its related technologies.

It will be a six-week crash that’s part of a Wharton certificate program and is aimed at helping creators, businesses, and professionals further understand how they can use and benefit from the metaverse in the future.

Specifically, the class will consist of six industry case studies and a series of lectures from leaders in the industry and Wharton faculty. There will also be guest speakers from Animoca Brands, Snap, Magic Leap, Second Life, Unity, and other major players in Web3. Because of the online format, students will be able to study at their own pace.

The move towards the Web3 subject matter makes Wharton the first Ivy League business school to launch a program on metaverse technology. The Business in the Metaverse Economy course is currently open for limited enrollment. Its first cohort begins on September 12, 2022.

Education In the Metaverse

According to consulting firm McKinsey & Company, the global metaverse industry could generate $5 trillion by 2030. One thing that means is schools and companies are beginning to wake up and invest in the metaverse and Web3 education.

One such company is Meta, formerly known as Facebook. Last month, we reported that the social media mogul had partnered with Simplon, a French digital training firm, to bring Web3 to higher education. The duo intends to open “metaverse academies” throughout France, where students will study as specialist immersive technology developers and assistant technicians. The first academies are planned for Paris, Marseille, Lyon, and Nice.

In other metaverse education news, the University of Tokyo is offering metaverse courses to high school students and adult workers. The students will be given official certifications after completing the course that will focus on the metaverse and its related technologies. The university said that there were hoping to solve the problem of a shortage of metaverse workers by training new students.

It’s worth noting that both Facebook and the University of Tokyo said they are hoping to attract female students to their programs, who have been traditionally under-represented in Web3.

We’ll have to wait and see if Wharton’s metaverse course is successful. But its very existence shows that the metaverse and the trillions it could generate is becoming more of a reality that business leaders and schools must try to understand.