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Singapore, 16 August 2002
e-learning projections across markets |
e-learning globally
The global e-Learning market has been projected to reach US$46 billion over the next five years, while the market for online and distance education services in Asia has been estimated at US$6 billion in the year 2001. This is a projected growth of over twenty percent per year over the next five years.
The e-learning situation in China
According to the IDC National Computer Education Survey, total technology expenditure in China is expected to reach US$6.5 billion by the end of the year 2000. The demand for education, particularly K-12 education in China, is phenomenal. A 1998 educational survey of China found that there are approximately 609,626 primary schools and 92,071 secondary schools, with a total attendance of over 212 million students. Until a recent development, a large proportion of this student market remained inaccessible to distance education. The Chinese Ministry of Education has enacted a new policy whereby computer and Internet usage is required as part of the curriculum for students above age twelve. This creates a strong demand for e-Learning platform software and services that facilitate online education in both the school / school district, Intranet and Internet environments.
e-learning in Singapore
Managers were asked to estimate their training budget allocations devoted to elearning. Overall, aggregated responses suggest that managers believe about 10% of their current training budgets are allocated to e-learning activities.
When correlated with Singapore payroll expenditure and a national average of 3.6% of payroll devoted to training, this gives us an annual domestic training expenditure - for all training activities - of S$250 million in direct costs.
This suggests that the size of the current e-learning market in Singapore is S$25 million for course creation and delivery – excluding infrastructural investments such as knowledge portals, learning management systems, content management systems or training management systems.
Managers were also asked to estimate planned expenditure in one year’s time. 60% believed that the amount of training budget allocated to e-learning would increase by another 10%-15% over the coming year. In the aggregate, this suggests that managers believe expenditure on elearning course creation and delivery will almost double in the next 12 months, reaching about S$47 million.
Managers were asked to rank the following perceived benefits of e-learning in order of importance to them:
- It saves money
- It saves staff time out of the workplace
- It allows staff to learn at their own pace
- We can deploy learning faster to more people
- We can standardise learning across a dispersed organisation
Contrary to the expectations of some e-learning market watchers (who might have expected cost and staff time savings to be paramount), the leading benefit overall (by a large margin) was perceived as speed of deployment, while cost savings were ranked second to last.
Speed of deployment also mattered significantly for the locally owned enterprises, while the ability to standardise learning across dispersed organisations mattered least.
The ranking for managers from locally owned companies matched the overall ranking exactly, with cost savings placed 4 out of 5. Managers from foreign owned companies placed even less importance on cost savings, ranking it fifth. Again, speed of deployment was paramount.
From what is shown here, e-learning looks set to become a norm in many Asia Pacific societies. The adoption of e-learning whether in companies or for individuals is inevitable as many find the speed, flexibility and mode of learning refreshing. Give or take a few years, it may change the way we learn, permanently.
So what are you waiting for? Jump onto the e-learning train at www.purpletrain.com and find out how it’s revolutionising the way we learn!
About Informatics Group
The Informatics Group, established in 1983, is a multinational corporation providing training and educational services in information technology and business management. Through its international franchising program and strategic acquisitions, Informatics presently has a global network of more than 450 centres spanning 42 countries.
The company presently offers five franchise products: Informatics Computer School, Thames Business School, CAL Computer Training Centre, Cambridge Child Development Centre and RACC. For more information, please visit http://www.informaticsgroup.com.
About PurpleTrain.com
PurpleTrain.com is the e-learning service provider which offers a one-stop service for business and IT education programmes, corporate training courses and education-related services. By combining innovative technology with world-class training content, PurpleTrain.com offers companies and individuals a high value, quality and effective online training solution. Over 1000 online courses are available, offering PhDs, masters, degrees, diplomas and certificates in business and IT programmes. Its e-community now stands at over 55,000 users.
PurpleTrain.com is a 100%-owned venture of Informatics Holdings Limited, a leading training and education provider listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange.
For more information, please contact :
Andrew Yap
Marketing & PR Manager
PurpleTrain.com
Email : pr@purpletrain.com
Website : www.purpletrain.com
www.informaticsgroup.com
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