The Future of Industrial Skills Is Simulated

The world’s capacity to build, maintain, and modernize critical systems, from data centers to power grids, depends on people whose skills are struggling to keep pace with machines that evolve exponentially. As companies continue to use increasingly modern and complex systems, with too few workers properly equipped and ready to manage them, the question is no longer whether technology can perform; it’s whether people can keep up.

Theodore Sutherland is working to close that gap. As founder and managing partner of Sage Blacksmith, a Boston-based firm focused on workforce technology and responsible investment, he leads efforts with the aim of modernizing how technical workers are formed. The firm identifies and acquires niche B2B companies that use digital tools to train and support industrial and technical professionals, preparing people to operate, maintain, and lead the technologies that drive the modern economy.

Now, after a decade shaping education and workforce systems across continents, Sutherland shares his perspective on the instruments that could transform how people learn to work. He points to simulation, virtual reality, and digital-twin environments as tools that can turn abstract industrial knowledge into lived experience, where workers learn by practicing instead of observing.

Sutherland’s View On Workforce Training: The Digital-Twin Approach

The first thing Theodore Sutherland points out is that the world’s most essential industries, the ones that power energy generation, manufacturing, and logistics, are facing a widening skills gap. New machines, sensors, and data-driven systems like automated inspection drones and AI-assisted control software are being introduced faster than traditional training programs can adapt. According to recent research, nearly 87% of companies say they already face or expect to face a major technical skills shortage in the coming years, a problem that, if left unaddressed, could affect employment for many workers worldwide.

The challenge, Sutherland argues, comes down to designing learning environments that evolve at the same pace as the machines themselves. One answer he proposes lies in the digital-twin approach: building virtual replicas of machines or environments and pairing them with virtual-reality simulation.

A digital twin works by mirroring the behavior and physics of a real asset, so that engineers can test how systems act and respond under different loads, stresses, or failures without shutting down actual equipment. When paired with VR, it creates a fully interactive training ground for users to experiment, make mistakes, and understand consequences in real-time.

This way, a technician can step into a VR model of a turbine room, manipulate components, and diagnose faults, all before touching a single piece of equipment. If well implemented, these tools could deliver faster skill transfer, stronger retention, and a smoother path from theory to confident practice. “Digital twins teach systems thinking; VR teaches muscle memory,” he says. “Together, they compress the time it takes to turn information into competence.”

Rethinking The Human Role In Labor

For Sutherland, rethinking how people learn is only the first step. The deeper shift, he believes, comes with redefining how they work. He sees the operator’s role evolving from manual control to what he calls “supervised intelligence,” one where human judgment could steer the implementation of automated tools. In this new reality, a technician would play a more active role, not only executing tasks but interpreting streams of live data, making real-time decisions with the help of predictive tools.

Digital-twin platforms, then, could be crucial in this development, integrating sensor data into training operations to help teams learn how to respond to the exact conditions they’ll face in the field. Augmented reality glasses can overlay equipment with real-time diagnostics, while predictive dashboards guide technicians through complex workflows, ensuring every action in the field feeds back into smarter systems.

It’s here that Sage Blacksmith invests most actively, backing companies building the connective tissue between skill and infrastructure. “Digitizing maintenance means more than remote monitoring; it’s about empowering people with real-time insight, guided action and automation in routine workflows,” Sutherland says. “Done well, it can reduce time for upfront training as well.”

For him, the ultimate goal is establishing a human-machine partnership: a workforce that learns alongside its machines, evolving through shared intelligence rather than competition.

How Simulation Can Help Build Resilience

Sutherland also notes the importance of preparedness as a defining trait of strong organizations. In his view, resilience isn’t a mere operational safeguard but a measure of leadership itself. He believes the next generation of workforce training must prepare technicians not for ideal conditions, but for the moments when systems fail.

That belief underpins his fascination with simulation: a way to let workers safely experience breakdowns in hazardous settings like nuclear, chemical, or electrical operations, where they would learn to recover, coordinate, and lead under pressure. In digital environments, failure becomes rehearsal rather than catastrophe.

This philosophy defines Sutherland’s thesis at Sage Blacksmith, which invests in companies that turn risk into a measurable learning process. “The pinnacle of education,” he often says, “is for a learner to prove they can do something, not just that they know it intellectually. Simulation makes that type of assessment possible without the high stakes.”

The Science Behind Immersion

Finally, Sutherland’s approach returns to the human brain itself. He believes the reason immersive training works isn’t just technological, but rather neurological. Research in cognitive science shows that retention can improve up to fourfold when learning tactics directly connect information to motion and context. In his view, virtual and simulated environments activate the brain’s episodic memory (the system that records lived experience) so learners can recall procedures under pressure as if they’ve already performed them.

To Sutherland, mastery begins when learning stops being theoretical and becomes embodied, a fusion of mind and muscle. Through Sage Blacksmith, he’s building off of that philosophy to empower companies that use data feedback, from immersive simulations to personalize learning and quantify progress.

Setting More Advanced Industrial Training Techniques

Simulation and digital-twin platforms are fast becoming laboratories for workforce performance, helping workers learn industry-specific skills, know how to deal with uncertain situations, and know how to enact safety protocols. As technologies like AI will learn from expert behavior, training evolves with every iteration, transforming industrial education into a living cycle of improvement.

For Theodore Sutherland, this is the foundation of a resilient, digitally fluent workforce. At Sage Blacksmith, he’s building toward that future, where technology expands human capability rather than eclipsing it. “The next industrial revolution isn’t about replacing people with machines,” he says. “It’s about training people fast enough to lead the machines.”

BDG Media newsroom and editorial staff were not involved in the creation of this content.