The need to provide company employees with appropriate skills development and business education has become increasingly important in the globalising economy.
In SA, training and instruction institutions, in both the private and public sectors, are under pressure to deliver greater numbers of skilled workers to meet the increasingly sophisticated demands of the workplace.
Skills development is a priority in SA, says Paul Johnson, general manager of e-learning solutions company SmartForce Africa, who maintains that traditional training methods alone are no longer capable of delivering the desired results.
"Traditional training methods - usually associated with classroom attendance - can no longer keep pace with the changing social trends in SA, which presents trainers with increasingly diverse groups of students, from differing geographic locations, ethnic backgrounds and with varied abilities.
"The challenge faced by companies today is to implement consistent and effective training programmes that take these constraints into account."
Johnson maintains that e-learning is the key. "E-learning can create an environment in which continuous learning can be facilitated at a pace determined by individual students.
"We believe that e-learning is the new global model for professional development and advancement. It encompasses a wide variety of learning events to create a process and an optimum environment for learning. It leverages the power of the Internet and corporate intranets, to reach individuals in a real-time, geographically dispersed business world."
Johnson notes that the main differentiator between e-learning and other forms of distance learning is that it involves more senses. "Sight and hearing, for example, are activity engaged in the process," he says.
Market watchers in the US predict that the e-learning market will grow from $2.3 billion last year to $14.7 billion by 2004. Worldwide, the overall e-learning market is expected to hit $23 billion by 2004.
"This trend will be followed in SA, which has an escalating need for e-learning initiatives," stresses Johnson.
Addressing additional benefits of the e-learning process, Johnson says it leverages the Web to make two-way communication between the trainer and students, and students and peers possible. "This can take the form of chat areas with live subject matter experts, or mentors, e-mail, Web broadcasts, discussion groups, live meetings and virtual classrooms. It can also involve telephone link ups to discuss aspects of the course or courses under review," he says.
"It is the development of such an engaging environment supported by multimedia graphics, streaming audio and video and real world analytical and role-playing simulations that makes e-Learning the most positive training option for SA."
Today`s businesses are measured not only by the results they achieve - but also by how quickly and efficiently those results are delivered.
Successful learning providers, according to Johnson, are defined by their ability to impact customers` business objectives, fundamentally transforming the way enterprises develop their employees.
"Significantly, e-learning often reduces the overall amount a company spends on training," adds Johnson. A study in the US found that it cost a company $10 per person to provide an e-learning training course, compared with $65 for a classroom course. Savings in SA are just as impressive, with reductions of up to 90% being realised by many users of e-learning.
A recent article in Information Week noted that e-learning`s ability to provide a wider variety of courses and cut costs at the same time "are benefits too attractive to resist".
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