Digital technologies foster changes in production and business processes as well as in staff working places. The required amount and update speed of knowledge has increased. In times of globalisation enterprises, independent from their size, are confronted with a market in which "knowledge" has become one of the main production factors, next to "capital" and "labour". Especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) knowledge plays an important role as a factor for competition and quality advantage.

As one consequence the existing vocational training programmes need to be adapted and improved in most organizations. The critical role of digital technologies in shifting vocational training from "just-in-case" to "just-in-time" to fulfil training requirements is undisputed. In addition, today's learners, especially younger ones, expect to use computers which support learning technologies like eLearning, that means "... the use of new multimedia technologies and the Internet to improve the quality of learning by facilitating access to resources and services as well as remote exchanges and collaboration." (EU eLearning Action Plan - 2001). The EU Lisbon, Stockholm and Barcelona Councils called for sustained action to integrate Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in education and training systems.

This aim is on the European level promoted by the European Commissions Barcelona declaration of march 2002, where it is underlined that: "In order to raise the niveau of learning in Europe, the integration of ICT in the educational process is seen as an opportunity to advance the change process and to increase both quality and accessibility to learning processes".

eLearning through its flexibility and facility of access is seen as a major enabler of lifelong learning and as a catalyst of change. In this context, the eLearning initiative of the European Commission ( http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/elearning ) seeks to mobilise the educational and cultural communities, as well as the economic and social players in Europe, in order to speed up changes in the education and training systems for Europe's shift to a knowledge-based society.

Our paper focuses on the chances and perspectives - especially for small and medium-sized enterprises - which are developed in the context of the European eLearning initiatives. Therefore, firstly the key issues of eLearning are discussed in the following chapter. The chances related to the usage of eLearning for the vocational training in SMEs and the real situation are discussed in chapter 3. The experiences made so far with eLearning in SMEs are exemplified by some eLearning projects financed within the eLearning initiative of the European Commission including the ongoing project ARIEL (chapter 4).

In the following "Classroom learning" is the term used to refer to traditional learning carried out with groups in a physical classroom, while the term eLearning is used for learning events having two characteristics: Technology-enabled learning without the classroom and enabled by the internet other parts of the learning process, such as learning management, assessment and so on.

Many learning providers, particularly North American ones, took into account that vocational education and career training has evolved into a product that is developed, applied and disseminated using information and communication technology. eLearning has a lot of advantages compared to regular training: eLearning products can be utilised at any time or location and thus in principle are available to trainees all over the world. Therefore it was expected that eLearning would increase its share in companies training activities. But performance and reputation of eLearning have not lived up to the lofty expectations set by the early realisation of the enormous potential benefits of the "marriage" of learning and technology. For example, in 2000 the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) prognosticated optimistically that the world of vocational training would change within 1000 days making the transition to the eLearning age. But the reality in companies shows another picture.

It seems in the last years that the quality standards of the eLearning products are likely to decline and the use of eLearning decreases. One problem could be the (non-)human factor. Initially, eLearning was seen mostly from the administrator's perspective rather than from the student's points of view and interests with the result that not the learner but the technology used to be the centrepiece of eLearning. eLearning solutions tend to be seen as an opportunity to reduce costs by automating the learning process, cutting out teachers and staff by going directly to the learner, reducing inventories of books and libraries, and reducing classroom and building requirements.

Also the attitude of individual managers who want to save money and buy ICT-based training systems that do not suit the staff of the organisation is an aspect that needs to be taken into account. Learning infrastructures are not just about computers and networks. They include the ability to assess training needs and to respond to those needs, to develop training plans and strategies for staff development.

Another aspect related to eLearning is that rather than using the dynamic and distributed nature of the technology to re-engineer the learning process, the most common strategy employed by educational institutions to date has been to replicate existing classroom and course design practices. In the absence of any consistent vision of what an eLearning platform should be or do, the inherited paradigms also led to the patching together of existing technologies and systems, such as email, whiteboard and video streaming, to deliver the same kinds of functionalities as seen in the classroom. A recent trend within many organisations is to adopt sophisticated platforms developed by private eLearning specialists. But technological advance has not been accompanied by improvements in the pedagogies the eLearning platform facilitates. The focus is not on the need of the learners. The user got left with multiple systems, each with their own passwords, interfaces, and navigation, increasing their frustration ((6) E-LEARNING FRAMEWORK, 2003). It is important that learning environments support the emergent standards for eLearning materials in order to allow interoperability and facilitate localization.

Furthermore, access to learning materials and their content is another major issue in the development and implementation of eLearning in organisations. The European Commission notes in a recent document:

"...the development of the 'digital economy' and the wider use of the Internet and computer and networking equipment has raised accessibility to multimedia to unprecedented levels, thus enhancing opportunities for producers and consumers. However, this rapid evolution does not seem to have been matched in the new educational content sector. There is a general consensus that there is a lack of European educational multimedia content coming from institutional, professional and industrial sources in education, publishing and educational software. After an initial phase of enthusiasm, often described as 'hype', there are growing doubts about the real demand for educational e-content, and about its relevance for improving learning" ((5) EUROPEAN COMMISSION, 2003).

Results of examination of catalogues of eLearning available in different European countries show that most materials deal with the use of standard software packages and networking technologies. Next on the list are learning materials for managers and for management activities followed by eLearning materials for language learning. Beyond this the provision is very limited ((1) ATWELL et al., 2003).

Another problem concerning learning materials is the debate on the issue of globalisation and localisation in software and learning materials. The task of translating materials into different languages is not only a technical problem but involves important cultural issues.

Some new research results indicate a shift in directions concerning the EU-funded eLearning projects. For example the results of a monitoring of projects funded by the Leonardo da Vinci program shows a changing orientation of the eLearning projects (s. Table 1).

"During the first years of using the internet and ICT, most of the eLearning projects, even those aiming to design learning processes, were focused on technical innovation to create technology based learning environments. There would appear to have been a change in thinking on eLearning in the past three to four years, with a new focus in the discussions on eLearning. Rather than the emphasis on technology, the new focus of thinking on eLearning is increasingly on the learner him/herself and on methodologies and didactics. This is seen as more important in developing the quality of eLearning provision and ensuring the success of ICT supported learning processes" ((3) BIBB, 2003).

Even taking into account all the new possibilities of ICT to help and motivate the learner and to involve learners in the learning process, learning is still hard work. In her keynote speech "Dropping the e and keeping on learning" presented at the Leonardo da Vinci Conference in Dipoli, ANNE NEVGI made clear that in spite of the rapid advance of technology many traditional problems have to be solved. One problem is the integration of ICT in such a way that is supports development work tasks, rather than merely electronically cataloguing and regulating routine tasks.

In order to be successful traditional learning delivery has to be blended more intelligently with eLearning solutions into a learning strategy taking into account the individual and social working and learning situation of the learner ((3) BIBB, 2003).

Blended learning could be a solution also for vocational training in SMEs because results of research ((18) ZINKE, 2003) show that such companies use eLearning less than the big companies. To date, the greatest use of eLearning has been in the IT skills area, first to close the skills gap - not enough workers for the open IT jobs globally - and then re-skilling as employees thought to make them more attractive in the job market and to improve their retention factor.

Many SMEs use digital media including CD-ROMs, the Internet and Intranets for accessing technical manuals or for Web searches. But learning takes place only if information is applied in such a way as to develop new mental models and schemas, explicit or tacit ((4) CEDEFOP, 2003).

It can be observed that eLearning mainly takes place within big companies and that outside of the IT sector there is little activity going on in SMEs which is related to eLearning ((11) HAMBURG et al., 2005; (12) MILL et al., 2004) so far. Many of the perceived problems are, however, based on misconception or prejudices born out of a general suspicion of an educational process in such companies where it is not teacher driven. They are afraid of high costs and overhead for the content maintenance. The other difficulty for SMEs is that most of them do not have a suitable infrastructure for learning. Staff will not in general be allowed to take time off for study, and very often will not be funded to undertake further training ((4) CEDEFOP, 2003).

Also SMEs do not seem to be very interested in eLearning because of the available eLearning products which are mostly standard products. In general standard products are not adapted to the specific needs and demands of SMEs. For big enterprises it is possible to use standard products for some tasks and goals while getting tailored products for specific needs, mostly in cooperation with an eLearning manufacturer. For SMEs this strategy is too expensive. One approach to solve these problems is the so-called "Mass Customisation". This concept is based on modules of the teaching units. Sometimes it is even necessary to "destroy" produced eLearning units and to rebuild them into modules. Another important aspect for high quality and affordable products is a "Content-Sharing-Platform" (see for example, the results of LERNET at www.lernet.info ).

Another obstacle in radically changing the way training is delivered lies in the organisational culture, especially the learning culture ((17) WADE, 2003). In short, the problem is not with the technology or the delivery of eLearning but with the learning culture. Every company has established a learning culture. It is the way in which the organisation has taught its employees to learn and be supported along the way. Two aspects are important in a learning process: the content being presented and skills to master and apply that content once the experience is over. Typically, skills to master and apply content are what makes up an organization's learning culture. So the companies need to understand the type of learning culture they have created and they are supporting. If it is a highly dependent one, they need to start introducing skills that foster a more independent approach. They need to introduce the correct learning options that support their current culture in the best way possible. One solution for making the transition to an "electronic" learning culture easier is to blend traditional learning delivery with eLearning solutions ((7) HAMBURG et al., 2003). Blended learning is defined as a learning solution, which implies a mix of the following (HAMBURG / LINDECKE, (8) 2004; (9) 2004a):

Combining different delivery modes has the potential to balance out and optimise the cost and time for developing and deploying the learning program. There could be different approaches to using blended learning in a SME:

Although blended learning seems to be the solution for implementing eLearning there still are some critical aspects which should be taken into consideration for successfully changing the methods of vocational training ((13) MOSHER, 2003). Learners have always been an interesting breed. They are very slow and resistant to change, particularly when it comes to changing the environment in which they learn. For most organisations, this is the most critical stage of a successful blended learning strategy. Such a strategy should begin with a thorough and clear analysis of the learner's situation and of the training targets for which blended learning can be applied. The three important phases are:

Many SMEs forget the analysis stage and start with the implementation. Therefore, it is not surprising that blended learning concepts often do not suit the learner's needs and the company's learning culture. Another important factor is scalability: because many SMEs go global, there is a need to create training that can be administrated to a large dispersed audience. The ability to scale should be determined for every learning concept at the beginning of the blended learning programme. Blended learning is still an innovative approach which is used by only a minority of projects. The monitoring of nearly 150 Leonardo eLearning projects states: "A number of other interesting results come out of this survey. Whilst not more than 12% of the projects are definitely described as blended learning concepts, most of the projects regard eLearning not as an isolated consumer product but as a more or less integrated part of a complex learning process." ((3) BIBB, 2003).

In the following three examples concerning eLearning and/or blended learning in SMEs are described: Lernet, VIP and ARIEL as an upcoming monitoring project. While the first two examples are only described in brief, our own project ARIEL and its results are shown in more detail.

Many SMEs carried out work in various settings which plays an important role in peoples´ live. Therefore in order to make a contribution to business improvement of SMEs and to their integration in the European market by using eLearning in their vocational training learning, this has to be embedded in their work organisation from an economic, human and social point of view. A lifelong learning culture of SMEs that could support this process is missing in most SMEs and it remains open how such a culture can be developed, being a very complex problem. Blended learning and eLearning require a higher degree of self-managed learning than traditional classroom-based situations and in many SMEs a learning culture that can foster independent and on-line approaches was not created.

At policy level European and national programmes have paid more attention to the importance of the internet and of digital technologies for e-commerce and B2B in SMEs and very limited attention to the use of ICT for learning, particularly of e-Learning. So despite of the recognition of the need for policy to support and develop e-Learning in some European states a considerable number of outstanding policy issues remain. Also questions like "How labour market policies can recognize, support and reward lifelong learning by using eLearning" should be answered because in many European countries policies in these two areas are separated.

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