Our sister site EUbusiness reports that the European Commission has unveiled ambitious plans to transform education and training in schools throughout the Community and prepare its citizens for the onset of the "knowledge society'.

The Commissioner for Education and Culture, Viviane Reding outlined funding which has been set aside from The Regional Funds Directorate, European Social Fund, The European Investment Bank, Socrates programme and the Information Technology Programme for 2001.

The one problem could be accessing the funds themselves - information seems to be difficult to get hold of. Two good initial ports-of-call have to be the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training at http://www.cedefop.gr/and the European Consortium for the Learning Organisation.