Elearning body targets extra income via private sector link

Providing transferable skills key to target of £44m a year by 2011

The government’s flagship online learning provider is to seek greater investment from the private sector to increase commercial income to £44m a year by 2011.

The University for Industry (Ufi), which is responsible for elearning initiative Learndirect, launched in 1998.

It aims to help over-16s improve their job potential through a public-private partnership that attracts external investment.

Computing revealed in December 2004 that Ufi had spent almost £1bn of public money.

A Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report this week says the organisation had generated just £12m in commercial income by July 2005 and that Ufi’s new targets are ‘aspirational’.

A Ufi spokeswoman told Computing the £44m target provides a first step towards direct revenue generation.

‘We know what we want to achieve; it’s a target. But we don’t know hand-on-heart that we are going to make it,’ she said.

A PAC meeting last November found Ufi had struggled to deliver early commercial success.

‘Ufi potentially offers value for money but it doesn’t do it yet,’ a National Audit Office representative told the meeting.

Ufi now hopes to generate £20m a year from large companies by providing transferable skills and bespoke courses.

It recently launched an ecommerce pilot for small businesses, which will form the basis for further course development and annual revenue of £20m.

Ufi also hopes to generate £4m a year from its Learn through Work programme, in which employers can deliver higher-level working together with academic institutions.

The Public Accounts Committee report also says that 40 per cent of employers do not provide their staff with any training.

And it suggests such employers could take advantage of the extensive elearning provision established by Ufi’s Learndirect.

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