E-learning is set to become a major growth area for local government over the next few years. At an event run by I&DeA, the Improvement and Development Agency for local government, on 24 July, a number of speakers including Russell Holt, Director of Online Learning at TrainingZONE.co.uk, addressed an audience of local government trainers and HR professionals to outline the opportunities and challenges presented by the e-learning revolution.

In the session on "E-learing is real learning", Russell Holt gave an overview of the developing e-learning market and provided pointers on what local authorities need to consider to build an effective e-learning solution. The huge potential for growing e-learning in the sector was underlined by a straw poll which showed that despite the vast majority of delegates having internet access at the desktop, around 90% had yet to undertake any kind of online course. His presentation was followed by Robert Pulling of Hampshire County Council who is developing a project to make asynchronous e-learning available to the council's employees.

The event also saw other presentations from represenatives of the Return to Learn scheme, e-learning course builders Epic Plc and learning management system provider learnonline.

I&DeA is developing its own plans to promote e-learning in the sector and because of the clear demand for information identified at the seminar, TrainingZONE has set up a new thread within the Online Learning conference on its discussion forum to focus specifically on e-learning in local government.