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E-learning step for University of York IT Academy

Posted on 24 October 2005

The University of York is to help small and medium-sized businesses in Yorkshire to take maximum advantage of their IT investment by laying on the first of a series of new easily accessible E-learning courses.

The IT Essentials course is designed to provide small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) with the skills required to make the most of their IT investment, manage cost saving IT processes, and build an IT infrastructure that can grow as their business expands.

We aim to allow people to get the best of both worlds by fitting the skills transfer around essential business task

Steve Knight

An E-learning format will allow SMEs to access the Essentials course at a pace and location that suits their individual needs.

The University's IT Academy has won a £20,000 Capacity Building Grant for knowledge transfer to industry from the White Rose Research Triangle to help it to develop an E-learning environment, including converting the IT Essentials course to this format.

IT Academy manager Steve Knight said: "We recognise that while gaining these essential IT skills may be a high priority for many enterprises, finding time to attend training courses can be a difficult when running a successful business. By providing this valuable course as an E-learning package, we aim to allow people to get the best of both worlds by fitting the skills transfer around essential business tasks."

The grant will also provide the infrastructure to allow the Academy to develop further E-Learning courses, making both it and the University more accessible to rural communities in Yorkshire, where the time and expense involved in travelling to training courses may be prohibitive. The grant will also mean that, during the first year, a number of subsidised places will be available to Yorkshire SMEs when courses start in early 2006.