How would you characterize the Romanian eLearning market in terms of structure, size, and value?

Mariuca Talpes: The Romanian corporate eLearning market can be estimated this year (2008) at around 2 million euros, invested by companies involved in various industries. If we include the public sector, the amount reaches five million euros invested in eLearning solutions.


The growth of the market depends on corporate needs in employee training and assessment, which in turn are determined by the companies' regional growth, the frequency of their launches of new or updated products, their need to rapidly integrate new employees into their organizations, the soft skills they need, especially for employees who deal directly with clients - retail, sales departments, and call centers - and also the frequency with which their human resources departments undertake assessments.


As a result, we consider the Romanian market as being at an early stage of development but growing rapidly. Interestingly, the financial services sector has proved to be a leader in adopting eLearning solutions.

From your perspective, what should be done to stimulate growth in this sector?

Mariuca Talpes: A priority is opening the educational market - getting eLearning solutions into the schools. Currently, only the Ministry of Education has chosen eLearning solutions to assist classroom teachers. Unfortunately this market has been closed using different means since 2000: only one company has had access to it, meaning the competition has been blocked, which has stifled the domain's development.

We also have to define a subprogram of structural funds to stimulate companies and public organisations to implement eLearning solutions.

The Social Science Faculties and the MBA schools should include at least some lectures on using eLearning solutions for building skills etc. in organisations.

Finally, government agencies should design projects of mass training including eLearning solutions.

Content, technology, and services are the three major eLearning market segments. Which segment has the dominant market share in Romania?

Mariuca Talpes: Off-the-shelf courses and custom-made courses, along with connected services, represent the dominant market share of the Romanian eLearning market. Learning Management Systems have a smaller but growing market share, especially in companies that have an interest in tracking employees' professional development, where you need results of progress made in regard to assessments and training.


This also involves integrating Learning Management Systems with the existing software infrastructure. For example, in 28% of the Romanian banks an eLearning solution is implemented, and 17% of these banks use the INTUITEXT eLearning platform.

To what extent do governmental projects influence the local eLearning market?

Mariuca Talpes: Unfortunately, by establishing a monopoly for one company, the governmental projects destroyed the development of the market. Opening it up would have a significant influence on its development.

Globalization has had a major impact on companies in terms of training. Can we talk about a corporate eLearning market in Romania?

Mariuca Talpes: Yes, we can talk about a corporate eLearning market in an early stage in Romania, but it is not necessary determined by the globalization process. Adults' training needs are various, and so are the programs offered by the Romanian eLearning companies.

Both classical training firms and eLearning-solutions providers offer their clients the experience of a blended solution, combining the benefits of the classical training modality with those of online training. We should also take into consideration the partnerships between experienced area- focused training companies and eLearning-solutions providers.

If we also consider that even though multinationals have entered the Romanian market but did really not bring eLearning solutions as part of their palette, we can clearly say that the corporate eLearning market does not depend on globalization.

What are the forecasts for 2009, and what should eLearning-solution providers expect in the near future?

Mariuca Talpes: They should expect an important increase of their revenue in 2009 determined by the regional growth of an increasing number of companies. New multinational companies have opened headquarters in Romania, and there have also been a great number of projects financed by the European structural funds in the area of human resources.


These programs improve education and training systems, promote a skilled workforce, boost human potential in the field of research and development, and stimulate the occupational integration of young unemployed people and long-term unemployed adults.