Obstacles To Small Business Usage Of eLearning In Europe

By Colin Mc Cullough

I would like to start my article with a few economic facts
which could lay a background for the message I want to get
across.

The political agenda of making Europe the most competitive
global economy by 2010 has not been matched by developments
over the past five years. Demographics show that Europe will
continue to have a shrinking workforce between now and 2020
with older workers forming the core of the European workforce.

Currently 80 million EU citizens are low-skilled. By 2010 it is
estimated that half of all additional new jobs on the labour
market will require tertiary education and almost 40% upper
secondary level. Logically, the job prospects for the low
skilled will decline. So we are currently confronted with the
situation where half the EU workforce (some 100 people) require
upskilling.

This in my view cannot take place in the back to the classroom
scenario, Learning and upskilling must be integrated in the
workplace.

These unsettling prospects must also be seen in the current
European economic structure. Small and medium-sized enterprises
are the European Union. They account for 99% of all businesses;
they provide employment for 74 million people.

Elearning through the flexibility and facility of access it
offers is seen - at least politically - as an important enabler
of lifelong learning. However, while we can observe an increase
use and impact of elearning in large European companies - up to
60% of the training needs of key players in the ICT sector is
now provided by elearning) the uptake in SME's is at best slow
and does not meet initial hopes and expectations.

A recent study carried out by Cedefop and the European
Commission shows that elearning has had a limited impact on
SME's in terms of those who use it and what it is used for, The
use was almost always limited to managers and ICT based staff.
The case studies carried out showed that in five European
countries there were a number of factors decisive in
influencing the development of ICT for learning in SME's. The
most significant were:

- the total lack of training culture within the SME
- lack of appropriate learning materials
- the attitude of individual managers
- and lack of access to sufficient bandwidth to ensure high
quality training.

Broadly speaking and with few exceptions, despite spawning a
number of new technology companies and numerous government and
European sponsored programme's the uptake and efficacy of
learning using ICT has been less than convincing. The
development of learning in Europe has been dominated by the
metaphor of the virtual classroom and the virtual university,
it has equally been dominated with an obsession with technology
and very little attention has been paid to vocational and
occupational learning or the development of elearning
environments in less formal learning contexts.

Like it or not, research suggests today that most learning
takes place in every and work social situations, In other
words, most of our learning is informal and takes place in a
variety of social contexts. Work is carried out in a social
context - this is particularly the case in small and
medium-sized enterprises and plays a very important part in
people's lives. If elearning is to make a contribution to
changing the traditional learning paradigm - institution based
- phase and stage related) it must become embedded in the work
organisation.

The use of ICT in the broad sense for learning is considered a
major factor in implementing the paradigm of lifelong learning
and in providing staff from SME's in particular with access to
continuing vocational education and training.

The main objectives of ICT supported learning should take
forward the following objectives:

- it should increase access to learning opportunities through
increased flexibility of delivery modes and by overcoming
geographical barriers to participation,

- it should enhance the quality of the learning experience in
terms of content and teaching

- ultimately it should increase the efficiency of the
organisation by reducing costs and increasing productivity.

So what are the obstacles to making elearning happen in SME's

Firstly I believe that people are ready to learn when they
realise that they don't know something that they need to know
in order to accomplish a goal they wanted to approach. Thus
there is little use in a philosophy of one size fits all, To
date most elearning has been an attempt to put books on
computers interrupted by a multiple choice test, The advocates
of elearning have not spent time trying to understand how the
new medium changes the educational experience. They are simply
trying to replicate what is there now while leaving out some of
the important parts such as the teacher. The value of a computer
may seem at first to be its ability to deliver information
anytime anywhere but its value in education is much more
important. When the air flight simulator was invented what was
important was not the fact that it could be used in any remote
location. It enabled pilots to learn to fly without risk and to
accumulate the experience but not be harmed by it

Today, to give another example, most university courses are
lecture courses. Lectures are evidence of the inertia that
exists in education and still reflects ancient educational
considerations. ELearning needs to be about learning by doing,
also using the computer to evoke simulated experience. One
should learn to run a business by running it rather than
reading or hearing about how to do it.

The emphasis in the elearning industry has changed somewhat
over the past five years from a technological to a pedagogical
perspective.

So first and foremost there must be a broader understanding of
what elearning really is and that it impacts largely on how,
where, what and how the learner progresses.

Secondly, I would return to the issue of the learning culture.
What is the motivation of the learner in the SME. Are their
incentives - tangible or intangible for improving his/her
competences. ELearning cannot be removed from the whole debate
of the learning organisation, of managing human capital and
recognising the assets of the company are largely in the heads
of its employees. Workplaces need to be designed to facilitate
learning and learning infrastructures. This requires
examination of what forms of work organisation are needed to
support elearning in SME's and how skills gained from formal
and informal learning activities can be applied in the
workplace. In this domain current research is weak.

The third issue I would touch upon is the question of
pedagogies and learning cultures. Work is still outstanding in
defining and analysing the training and learning needs of SME's
and of its managers and employees. In an elearning context there
is a need to develop effective pedagogies, materials and
eresources,

Fourthly the issue of elearning materials and infrastructures.
We need a much broader understanding of how electronic media
and applications can be used to support elearning. This should
go hand in hand with an audit of what elearning materials are
actually available to SME's, how does it fit their real
learning needs. This would led me on to the issue of
localisation of software but that I shall leave aside for the
present.

Point number five. That elearning is a cheap learning solution
is a myth. On average US estimates put costs of one hour
elearning instructional material at 20 000 dollars - in some
cases as high as 80 000 dollars. If materials can not be
recycled, if learning materials cannot be adapted to specific
learning environments, it learning materials have not complied
with technical standards, then there use is limited and the
return on investment non-existent.

And perhaps the last point I wish to make. What about the
models and frameworks to support elearning in SME's. There are
growing national and regional initiatives, and here I would
point to Scotland as one outstanding example for networking and
support to the SME looking for elearning opportunities. For
SME's I believe in terms of financial resources, the most
convincing model is one based on learning regions and
partnerships.

The issue of open standards is essential it elearning is to be
a feasible investment = particularly for SME's. Similarly there
is a need for a lifecycle model of learning content covering all
aspects of content from creation to delivery storage and
retrieval.

The issue of the changing role of the trainer or educator is
equally important. They potentially play the key role as change
agents. Their continuous professional development is essential
and work we have carried out at Cedefop shows that there is
major concern among teachers and trainers that they are not
equipped to support technology in the learning environment

To conclude, I think I have tried to advocate the view that the
issue of how a culture of lifelong learning should be developed
and supported in SME's is a complex one. It is unsure to me if
present national and European policies promote access to
continuing learning as a pubic right or. a private good, What
is the balance between the responsibilities of the public and
private sectors regarding elearning. And this raises the vital
question of funding. Already there are substantial differences
in access to lifelong learning and elearning for different
occupational and social groups. This in turn raises the issue
of social exclusion.

I am afraid that my article raises more questions that provides
answers to the issues of elearning in SME's. But if such issues
are not addressed at all levels - European, national and
regional, the promise of elearning as a driver of economic
growth and performance in Europe could easily turn into a myth.

About The Author:

Colin McCullough works at a European level
for increasing awareness of technology supported learnng. He
has consulted for a number of companies including
http://www.modusvivendi-design.com