Electric Paper, the Dublin based e-learning company, has secured a significant contract valued in excess of £1m with the UK Government-funded Ufi Ltd.
The deal means that, by 2003, up to 3m people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will have the opportunity to learn basic ICT literacy skills from a range of Electric Paper’s online products through the learndirect network.
Under the terms of the contract, Electric Paper is developing information and communications technology (ICT) courseware for introductory and advanced level learndirect courses. The courseware will be rolled out across hundreds of learndirect centres by the end of September 2000.
Commenting on the deal with Electric Paper, Mary Benwell, Ufi’s Director of Learning, said: "Ufi aims to create the demand for up to 1m courses and learning packages each year by 2003. This demand will be met by Ufi through its nationwide learndirect network and the delivery of online learning services to learndirect learners wherever they have access to the Internet. Ufi will put people in a better position to get jobs, improve their career prospects and boost business competitiveness.
"Electric Paper’s products will help us to meet these objectives by giving learndirect learners access to flexible, high quality learning materials," she added.
"The product range is ideally suited to provide training for those who have little previous experience of using computers. Web-delivery means that Electric Paper’s products can be fully integrated across the learndirect network, she added.
Jonny Parkes, Managing Director of Electric Paper, commented: "The deal with Ufi is a significant one for us. The objectives espoused by the Ufi mirror those of our own organisation and this is why the courseware developed by Electric Paper is ideal for the large volume of people that Ufi plan to train over the next three years.
"Ufi’s role is an integral one in the delivery of the British Government’s lifelong learning mission and Electric Paper is a key partner in the delivery of these objectives. This is a significant endorsement of our core e-learning proposition," he added.
Electric Paper provides computer based assessments, training, testing and management solutions for the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) and International Computer Driving Licence (ICDL).
Research organisation the IDC predicts that the global IT training market will grow from $16.5bn in 1998 to $30bn by 2003 and technology based training is expected to grow by over 50 per cent between 1996 and 2003.
