TrainingNet Inc announced yesterday that it has moved ahead in the international training marketplace by acquiring Graduate Group, one of the UK's training gateway, The National Training Index.

This acquisition reinforces TrainingNet’s global presence with the addition of the National Training Index’s base of over 130 online corporate customers – including British Aerospace, Ernst and Young, British Airways and America Online UK – and some 2,000 training providers included in the Index. It combines the English-speaking world’s two largest markets, allowing TrainingNet clients instant access to the greatest selection of training resources addressing the needs of employers.

TrainingNet has also announced it has acquired Trainers Village, a UK-based Web registry of freelance information technology trainers. The Trainers Village acquisition enables TrainingNet to offer training providers access to the skills of more than 1,600 independent trainers in all subjects ranging from UNIX engineering to C++ programming to Microsoft certification.

Today’s announcements are the first moves in TrainingNet’s plan to bring a B2B e-commerce training marketplace to the UK and Europe. The company has raised more than US$46 million to execute this strategy through acquisitions and product development.

This move brings TrainingNet into the increasingly competitive arena alongside such online companies as skillvest.com, trainingdirectory.com and worldoftraining.com.

TrainingNet CEO Hemang Dave commented: "The Graduate Group is indisputably the number-one training resource in the UK, with no competitor even a tenth of its size. Trainers Village is the UK's largest pool of independent trainers. Bringing them under our umbrella ensures that multinational companies with US and European operations have a single place to look for and buy training on the broadest range of business and technical subjects."