Press Release - State of E-business Readiness Report: Private Sector Educational Services in Canada

Publication Date: September 23, 2003

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Press Release
CSTD Releases Results of Survey...

The Canadian Society for Training and Development (CSTD) recently published a study, State of E-business Readiness Report: Private Sector Educational Services in Canada, to obtain a better understanding of what the advent of the Internet, e-business and e-learning have meant for small- and medium-sized (SMEs) private sector firms engaged in the delivery of education and training services in Canada.

The results illuminate a sector that is very advanced in its use of information and communications technology in general, but not generally willing or able to make significant commitments to developing or enhancing its e-business and e-learning capabilities under present conditions.

Ninety-eight percent of these firms use email and seventy-seven percent have their own websites. Most recognize that conducting business on the Internet will attract new customers, help them remain competitive with other organizations, provide better coordination with customers and suppliers, and improve revenue and sales.

"The barriers to using e-business continue to be the time required to implement, the cost of new infrastructure and uncertain return on investment", said Dale Wilcox, President of CSTD. These findings concur with the findings of the Net Impact Study Canada, published by Industry Canada in November 2002.

Forty-five percent of survey respondents indicated that their organizations sell e-learning products and services, responding to the strong projected growth in the e-learning market. However, the cost of developing e-learning products and services continues to be the greatest barrier to becoming involved in e-learning.

It is rather startling that 76% of the education and training firms responding to this survey have no immediate plans to develop or enhance their e-business capabilities and 68% have no current plans to develop or enhance their e-learning capabilities. The report goes on to make two recommendations to remove barriers and create incentives to encourage education and training firms to develop or enhance their e-business and e-learning capacity:

1. It is recommended that CSTD take a leadership role, in cooperation with Industry Canada and other stakeholders, in finding ways to advance the implementation of the following initiatives in the Canadian private sector educational services (PSES) sector.
   • program(s) to subsidize employee training / retraining;
   • a Canadian commercial education and training sector online portal;
   • a Canada-wide industry association;
   • better access to capital; and,
   • a national broadband connectivity / infrastructure program.
   
   
2. It is recommended that a series of corporate case studies of e-business and e-learning adopters be conducted as a follow-up to this survey to provide a more in-depth look at some of the key findings with a view to determining how to encourage more PSES firms to adopt e-business and e-learning solutions.

"Permission to publish this press release was provided by the Canadian Society for Training and Development (CSTD)."