Brussels, 26/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - In promoting the implementation of e-learning in Europe, Viviane Reding, Member of the Commission with responsibility for Education and Culture, today welcomed the launch of last year's eLearning Industry Group initiative (see EUROPE 10 May 2001 page 16). The Group, which has been established at the initiative of 15 leading companies, will assist the Commission and Member State Governments in furthering the objectives of the Commission's eLearning Action Plan (see EUROPE 29 March 2001 page 7). The goal is also to offer its support to Member State Governments that recently established e-learning as a priority for the forthcoming eEUROPE 2005 Programme (the request was made to the Commission at the Barcelona Summit in view of the Seville Summit and will focus on e-learning, on-line administration, health-on line and e-commerce: see EUROPE 23-26 March). The 15 founding members of the e-learning Industry Group are: 3Com, Accenture, Apple, BT, Cisco, Digitalbrain, IBM, Intel, Line Communications, NIIT, Nokia, Online Courseware Factory, Sanoma WSOY, Sun Microsystems and Vivendi Universal Publishing.
The Industry Group will provide advice to the European Commission and national governments in areas such as essential information technology and telecommunications infrastructure, open standards to facilitate the exchange of e-learning content, development of a sustainable market for e-learning content and the development of relevant professional and personal skills.
The Group will work in close co-operation with public institutions such as governments, schools and training institutions to implement four key initiatives: