(Interplay Learning: Austin, TX) --Interplay Learning, a leader in immersive learning for the skilled trades and industrial crafts, announces the launch of Skill Verification, a simulation-based assessment tool that enables organizations to evaluate an individual’s ability to perform trades-specific tasks. Using simulation-based assessments that mirror real equipment and conditions, Skill Verification provides supervisors and safety leaders objective, step-level evidence of readiness in electrical safety, industrial controls, and more.

Interplay Learning’s Skill Verification empowers organizations to better evaluate an individual’s task-specific abilities and select the right person for each job.

For many skilled trades and industrial roles, employers have limited ways to verify hands-on ability before putting someone on the job. Traditional assessments can require expensive equipment, dedicated facilities, and significant supervisor time, while interviews and multiple-choice tests don’t demonstrate whether a worker can actually execute a task.  

“You can have your OSHA, EPA, and NATE certifications and still not be able to perform the job in the real world,” says Matt Ellenberg, director of training, Southern Home Services. “What Skill Verification gives us is a way to actually demonstrate and prove that a technician can perform the skills we need them to perform. That’s incredibly valuable as we continue to grow.”

The initial catalog of 20 Skill Verification assessments launched Oct. 15, 2026, spanning applications in commercial HVAC, facilities management, manufacturing, data centers, and critical infrastructure. Assessments cover equipment, tools, and job-specific tasks in simulated operating environments, including using a digital multimeter, tool selection and inspection, and industrial electrical lockout/tagout safety procedure.  The assessments can also be used by educational institutions and workforce development programs to validate students’ hands-on skills before they enter the workforce.

Every assessment produces a clear, objective score alongside detail on missed steps, sequences, and decisions, giving supervisors specific, targeted areas for remediation rather than a pass/fail result. This gives organizations a repeatable way to evaluate skills consistently across sites, shifts and service partners as they scale their workforce.

“As skilled trades employers face growing pressure to build and deploy qualified workforces, they need better, safer ways to verify hands-on ability,” says Doug Donovan, CEO and founder of Interplay Learning. “Skill Verification gives operations and safety leaders objective evidence of demonstrated performance, helping them quickly identify skill gaps and make more informed decisions about workforce readiness.”

For more information about Skill Verification, visit https://www.interplaylearning.com/skill-verification/.