Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) education company Forge Academy & Labs has opened a new 4IR laboratory in Northriding, Johannesburg.

The facility boasts the latest fifth-generation, virtual reality, robotic and learning technologies, and is one of the few facilities in the country that allows for complete immersion in 4IR education.

The new laboratory includes lecture rooms, offices and expansive floor space with the latest technologies for students to experience.

The facility equips students for participation, employment and entrepreneurship in the 4IR, says Forge Academy & Labs co-founder Craig Clutty.

"We have grown in leaps and bounds since opening our first venue in 2020. With our incredible partners, this launch signals our growing contribution to youth development and digital transformation in South Africa and Africa. We are proud of this milestone and our dedicated students' unwavering pursuit of learning and growing," he comments.

"With students receiving qualifications through our Forge Academy & Labs training programmes, we have produced coders, Amazon Web Services practitioners, entrepreneurs, marketers and well-rounded, employable candidates fit for future marketplaces of the world,” says Forge Academy & Labs CEO Arthur Wade Anderson.

Forge Academy's education is modelled on the Finnish pedagogy of education that will equip South Africa's youths to actively participate and perform in economies built on the 4IR. Sectors that rely on the 4IR include economic development, trade and industry, agriculture, infrastructure, labour, science and technology, higher education, basic education, health and communications.

Forge Academy’s mission is to make an investment in people, aligning them to their purpose, providing an education of the highest quality and transferring skills that will make them exceptional in the world, Anderson says.