Learning Light
Second Floor, Gladstone Building,
1 St James Row, Sheffield, S1 2EU
Tel +44 (0)114 223 2442; Web www.learninglight.com
15th November 2010
Learning Light, learndirect and Creativesheffield stage the
European e-learning Summit in the UK
Europe's top e-learning strategists, content and systems developers
will gather in Sheffield in November for the first European
e-learning Summit to be held in the UK.
The Summit delegates - drawn from the private and public sectors as
well as academia - will discuss the European and world markets for
e-learning, identify industry trends and the key issues in
e-learning today. These issues are likely to include the growing
trend towards the use of rapid authoring tools in-house as well as
the move towards the personalisation and contextualisation of all
forms of online learning.
"Holding the European e-learning Summit in Sheffield sends a number
of signals to both Government and industry," said David Patterson,
operations director of Learning Light, the Sheffield-based company
which
focuses on promoting the use of e-learning and learning technologies
and which has organised the Summit.
"It's important that Government decision makers realise the key role
that corporate e-learning plays in supporting change and helping to
maintain competitive advantage, as well as promoting increased
worker
efficiency and effectiveness in difficult economic times. We hope
that the results of the Summit will help to promote such a
realisation.
"Then, we want to send a message to organisations in all sectors of
the economy: that e-learning can make a difference to their
performance - not just in terms of saving money from the learning
and development budget but also in terms of increasing worker
efficiency and profitability.
"Finally, we're delighted that the European e-learning Summit is
being held in Sheffield because it is the acknowledged capital of
the corporate e-learning industry in the UK - in the light of
articles published not only in the UK but also in the USA recently,"
he said.
The summit is also being supported by learndirect - the e-learning
provider which is one of the largest contributors to the UK
government's skills targets - and by Creativesheffield, a city
development company, charged with delivering Sheffield's economic
transformation.
In addition to the discussions taking place at the Summit, Learning
Light will also be revealing to delegates its latest - third -
definitive report into the UK e-learning sector. The report will
complement Learning Light's reports of 2007 and 2009 - the most
recent of which suggested that the annual size of the UK e-learning
industry is between £300m and £450m and forecast growth rates for
2010 of between 6.7% and 8%.
As with its 2009 report, Learning Light has gathered the information
for the 2010 report - which not only covers the UK but also the rest
of Europe - from a series of interviews with organisations engaged
in the e-learning market, from micro-businesses developing
innovative technologies to established major service and product
suppliers in the UK. In producing this report, Learning Light's goal
is to provide both suppliers
and purchasers with an understanding of what's possible, what's
available and where e-learning services and products are going.
Delegates are coming to the Summit from as far afield as Italy,
Greece and Eastern Europe, including the Czech Republic. One
delegate/observer is coming from Australia.
End
Notes for Editors
About the Learning Light Report
This report began as a simple attempt to update the report written
by John Helmer, on behalf of Learning Light, in 2007 on the size and
value of the UK e-learning industry. The 2009 Report updated this by
interviewing a number of leading players (vendors) in the industry
to ask their view of the market and by further seeking to quantify
the market size. This series of semi-structured interviews was
continued for the 2010 report.
About learndirect
Over the last 10 years, learndirect has pioneered the large scale
delivery of learning - supported by people but enabled by
technology. Over the last ten years learning with learndirect has
been shown to transform people's lives and helps businesses thrive.
Whether it is to get a new job, a promotion or to gain the
confidence needed to do more with their lives - helping people is at
the very heart of what learndirect is about. learndirect has opened
up opportunities for many who'd been turned off by education by
offering people a new way of learning. This has been done on a large
scale - after all, more than 2.8 million learners to date can't be
wrong.
About Creativesheffield
Creativesheffield is the UK's first city development company,
charged with delivering Sheffield's economic transformation. Its
core activities are:
-
Investment - to build on the success of Sheffield First for
Investment in attracting quality inward investment into the city.
-
Marketing - to achieve a positive shift in the perception of the
city; by publicising events within the city and promoting the city
to the outside world.
-
Regeneration - to develop the city's physical infrastructure to
internationally competitive standards, in line with the Sheffield
City Centre Masterplan.
-
Innovation - to create initiatives that will promote the growth of
the city's scientific, creative and cultural knowledge base.
-
Business Support Services - support businesses within the city and
locating in the city, including access to property databases, HR
support and advice on financial support.
About Learning Light Ltd
Sheffield-based Learning Light is a centre of excellence in the use
of e-learning and learning technologies in the workplace. Its
knowledge base contains over 400 papers offering insights and advice
on how to use e-learning & learning technologies.
Learning Light, which operates www.e-learningcentre.co.uk one of the
leading resources on e-learning in the UK, works closely with the
Universities of Leeds and Sheffield and has undertaken a Systematic
Literature Review of the available papers on the effective use of
e-learning in conjunction with the University of Sheffield.
Learning Light occupies a unique space in the e-learning and
learning technology sector networking with:
-
Suppliers of e-learning and learning technologies to support the
growth of the sector
-
Buyers
seeking out learning technology solutions to improve the
effectiveness of their business or organisation
-
Leading organisations worldwide who provide it with market knowledge
from around the globe
It:
-
Provides unbiased and impartial advice to both suppliers and
buyers
-
Hosts events and workshops that provide the platforms to impart
and gain knowledge by encouraging collaboration and sharing of
best practice
-
Acts as a conduit between suppliers and buyers to forge
successful business partnerships
-
Provides market intelligence and benchmarking information gained
from its many contacts and networking partners
-
Provides access to research materials from leading learning
technology professionals
Further information from:
David Patterson/ Gill Broadhead, Learning Light, +44 (0)114 223 2442
Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, +44 (0)1727 860405
www.learninglight.com