Yorkshire, November 2005 - (by Vernon Jones and Barry Phillips) Do a Google search for -˜eLearning region' and how many matches do you think you'll get? A hundred? A Thousand? More? We tried and got three. How can that be? After all, we've all heard the phrase. Well, perhaps everyone has got the page numbers done, but we're all struggling to fill in the rest.
For the past five years, the South Yorkshire eLearning Programme has been attempting to fill in those gaps. To actually implement what we all know makes sense. However, this is a large scale eLearning programme for a region of some 1.3 million people, and sometimes when theory comes to practice it is difficult to have such certainty.
Branded e-sy.info®, the programme is partly financed by the EU and contributions from all four Local Authorities in South Yorkshire. The region has received this EU funding because it was an area of deprivation. Of course it is also true that there are some very prosperous and comfortable districts within the sub-region, but it was one of the poorest in relative terms in the EU. It will come as no surprise that alongside that deprivation were low levels of attainment, low post-sixteen staying on rates and an all-too-predictable list of associated socio-economic indicators.
e-sy.info is primarily, therefore, about regeneration. In this case the inextricable links between education, employability, the economy, and social cohesion are not only acknowledged but are funded as such. The programme has put its money where its mouth is and is now having a significant impact on skills within the sub-region.
The number of learners gaining ICT qualifications at age sixteen has improved considerably since the programme was implemented and now significantly outstrips both statistical neighbours and the national average. The programme will meet its targets for engaging businesses in eLearning (a notoriously difficult task), and there are now 370 small and medium enterprises accessing eLearning through e-sy.info. Numbers of businesses accessing a free service means little you may think, but the programme has already provided over 3,500 actual employee learning opportunities.
The ICT infrastructure and capabilities of the region have been greatly improved. A shared learning platform with shared content serves as a focus. However, an ever-changing technological, social, and cultural topography demands flexibility of response. e-sy.info has now recruited a content team and implemented new programmes to address the most obdurate problem - the digital divide.
On awarding e-sy.info the SEEL Quality for eLearning Regions and Cities Award 2004, the judges said -˜In the view of the panel, South Yorkshire's eLearning programme is a model that could be transferred and adapted to other regions in Europe' .
The programme is now planning for the biggest challenge of all - sustainability post 2006 when the EU funding ceases.
