Thinking Outside the States
By Samantha Chapnick
Europe's no lady-in-waiting for e-learning. Evidence is mounting that forces may converge to catapult it to world-leader status.
It seems not that long ago that prominent experts and organizations, including IDC and Nicholas Negroponte, were confidently proclaiming Europe's information technology (IT) and learning technology "laggard" status.
Apparently, they must have been quite convincing.
Though there are exceptions, the majority of North American e-learning companies aren't currently pursuing opportunities in Europe. Some vendors proclaim it too small a market in comparison to the abundance of the United States. Other companies cite the inherent difficulty of dealing with so many different cultures, regulations, governments, and languages. Some firms aren't interested in dedicating the necessary resources, given how stretched they are in the home market. And still others simply find it uninteresting.
For vendors who are choosing to focus on the continent, the European e-learning opportunity is as significant--if not more so--than the U.S. market. Before you write me off as someone who forgot to don her tinfoil satellite deflection cap this morning, consider opportunity from a different perspective.
If we consider opportunity from a purely financial, hypothetical, or market-size perspective, who would argue that the United States, with its large population and disproportionate number of Fortune 1000 firms, is a nice piece of fruit to pluck? However, developing an e-learning sales or marketing strategy based only on financial market size is about as simplistic, naïve, and misguided as using IDC's "$11.4 billion by 2004" projection in a meeting with instructional designers.
What Europe lacks in financial market size it more than makes up for in organization, coordination, dedication, opportunity, and resourcefulness. The fact is that vendors who decide to make Europe a primary target market will be catapulted ahead of countless U.S.-centric firms because of Europe's driving ambition.
If we assume that Europe was recently an e-learning laggard, it's certainly making up for lost time and will continue to do so during the next year. Four forces are converging to create a Europe that may quickly eclipse the United States's position as e-learning leader, including
- technological infrastructure and adoption
- government initiatives
- firmly entrenched value of training
- history of distance learning.
Technological infrastructure and adoption
Europe is developing an IT infrastructure with a vengeance. According to the European Information Technology Observatory, the IT market in Europe is expected to grow by 10.6 percent in 2000, exceeding U.S. growth by a percentage point. Countries that are still being dismissed as technologically slow by the uninformed--Italy and France, for instance--have far exceeded the connectivity and PC penetration rates of many U.S. states. For example, Italy, which a year ago had little to no Internet use, now boasts that 12 of its 18 million people are connected thanks to government initiatives that include allowing citizens to deduct the cost of Net access and phone charges from their taxes. By the end of 2000, France is expected to receive flat rate Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) Net access, home PC sales are expected to catch up to other countries, and the number of mobile phones--33 to 34 million--will overtake the number of fixed telephone lines. According to the EITO, "By 2003, western Europe will be the biggest single regional Internet population."
Government initiatives
From a drive or action perspective, European governments have been on speed, and North American governments have been on Valium. The North American governments are spending considerable time introducing legislative bills that limit Website access from library computers, and arguing about the best way to bridge the Digital Divide without spending any money. European governments are aggressively taking actions--not just talking--to help citizens excel in the new economy.
The European Commission has committed to the "eEurope 2002 Action Plan" which states, among other things, that
- every citizen be equipped with the skills needed to live and work in the new information society
- member states ensure that all schools in the union have access to the Internet and multimedia resources by the end of 2001
- Europe's education and training systems adapt to the knowledge society
- a European diploma for basic IT skills be established, with decentralized certification procedures
- a network of learning and training centers be promoted for demand-driven information and communications technology training.
On other fronts, the Scottish government has appointed a minister of lifelong learning. At least once a month, if not more often, the Office for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) facilitates a working session focusing on education and training. Sweden's "Single Programming Document"--supporting education, training, and employment--received EUR747 million from the European Commission in September 2000. Several European governments are providing financial assistance to consumers who want Internet access or are fostering telecommunications competition where once it was a strong monopoly.
Prevalence of training
From an enterprise perspective, Europe has an ideal climate for e-learning. It can provide value in numerous situations, but the environment in which e-learning has the most noticeable impact (potential for change) is one in which obtaining training is difficult due to a lack of funds, but despite this barrier, people are eager to learn.
Consider the following:
- In European Commission (EUR) countries, more than 99 percent of all businesses employ fewer than 250 people. Half of all EUR businesses are one-person businesses (in which the staff consists of the owner and a few family members). Further, 43 percent of all enterprises employ 10 or fewer people.
- The number of people who receive training in smaller firms is half that of people in larger enterprises. In European countries that participated in the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS), enterprises with 500 or more employees provided training to 46 percent of their employees, whereas only 23 percent of those working in firms with less than 20 people received job-related training.
- Each employed European who received training in 1998 participated in an average (across IALS countries) of 204 hours. This is approximately 30 hours more than employed North Americans who participated in training.
- Of employees who work for enterprises with fewer than 20 people, 42.8 percent pay for their own job-related training. This is close to double the number of employees who work in firms with 100 to 499 people that paid for their own training (22 percent; 17.4 percent for 500+ employees).
Putting these together, the facts point to an environment that's ripe for e-learning because there's a large segment of the population eager for training. In fact, they've proven they want it so badly they will pay for it themselves.
History of distance learning
In the United States, nontraditional educational institutions are often viewed with doubtful eyes. A comment I've heard from several managers whose responsibilities include deciding how employee educational assistance funds are allocated is, "I won't give any money to people who want to go to one of those Sally Struthers correspondence course schools." And, it's not uncommon to see postings in training discussion groups asking about the legitimacy of schools that follow a nontraditional model.
On the other hand, Europe has a long and successful history of according status to educational institutions other than "traditional" schools. Many countries have education systems that include options for teens who aren't interested in pursuing a four-year degree at a liberal arts institution. Additionally, there are several distance learning schools that are elevated to a status similar to of prominent universities--albeit for a different population. Kurt Larsen, head of OECD's education department, states that although these schools won't receive the same respect as Oxford or Cambridge, they'll be afforded the same respect as most universities.
More important, he stresses that for employers and mature adults, degrees from such institutions as the United Kingdom's Open University are very valuable. They give a second chance to people who aren't able to attend college--without the stigma that often accompanies the same action in the United States.
It's time Europe gets the respect it deserves from the e-learning community. Yes, it's true it may not have an impressive proportion of Fortune 500s and the average company market cap might not be as high as Microsoft's, but money isn't the only requisite for success. In fact, the person with ingenuity will find a way to capitalize on all the other benefits--a government dedicated to providing resources and making change, a rapidly developing infrastructure, a culture that esteems nontraditional education, and an ideal climate for scalable training solutions.
Published: December 2000