Enlightened cabinet office lead the way on e-learning

The Cabinet Office has appointed Enlighten, a joint venture between iMPOWER Plc (www.iMPOWER.co.uk) and Epic Group Plc (www.epic.co.uk), to develop a strategic leadership course for senior civil servants.

Enlighten (www.enlighten.co.uk) is the first company dedicated to the provision of sophisticated interactive online training for the public sector.

The Centre for Policy and Management Studies (CMPS), which is part of the Cabinet Office, provides training for senior civil servants across Whitehall departments, and wants to extend the range of leadership training for new entrants to the senior civil service. CMPS will work in partnership with Enlighten and Lancaster University to develop a 20-hour online strategic leadership programme aimed at a group of about 6000 civil servants who are part of - or would like to be part of - the senior civil service.

This will be the first major online development programme developed specifically for the senior civil service. The public sector is beginning to make greater use of e-learning and online training, but mostly in the area of "hard skills" such as IT training. The leadership programme will be based on more reflective learning, and will be supported by "offline" mentoring and learning sets.

Enlighten has already produced a set of online courses for the local government market, in partnersrship with the Institute of Public Finance, and has further initiatives underway in both the local government and health sectors.

Epic Group plc, Europe's leading developer of innovative e-learning solutions, will be undertaking the development that will be made available to all government departments.

Steve Rayson, director of government services at Epic, commented: "There are significant benefits to be gained from the use of e-learning which extends far beyond the traditional forms of interactive self-study. The integration of mentoring, group working and e-learning provides the opportunity to deliver high quality learning to senior managers on a cost-effective basis."

Alasdair Liddell, iMPOWER Plc's director, government services commented: "In forming this partnership the Cabinet Office has recognised the role e-learning can play in the delivery of central government training. There is a real need to deliver a leadership course that addresses the issues faced by senior civil servants.

"With the relentless change of pace in government, the best organisations are investing in innovative learning to ensure that staff skills and knowledge run in tandem with the challenges of the twenty first century. We are delighted to be involved in this venture and look forward to working closely with the CMPS and Lancter University".

There are currently 350,000 people working in central government departments, with an estimated 19 million training days currently undertaken each year at a cost of £1.4 billion. The potential benefits of e-learning are enormous and vital when considering that online learning is set to rise from three percent to nearly thirty percent within five years.

Online learning provides the ability to bring the right information to the right people at the right time. Entire programmes can be customised for the learner, updated easily, and the user's learning can be evaluated through online testing.

Lancaster University School of Management will provide the course content, which Epic will coinvert into interactive online format.

The course will be available in October this year.

Notes to editors:

Epic Group plc is the UK's leading developer of bespoke e-learning solutions. Private sector clients include PriceWaterhouseCoopers, The Royal Bank of Scotland, Prudential, ntl and Vision Express. Public sector clients include the DfEE, UK Parliament, Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Hertfordshire County Council and the DSS.

iMPOWER, (www.impower.co.uk) provider of government services online, was launched in May 2000 by Heather Rabbatts, former chief executive of Lambeth council. iMPOWER provides solutions which enable businesses and the public to operate with local and national government, in a more efficient and cost-saving system, via the internet.