Without a doubt, today’s world is knowledge-based and depends on the rapid exchange of information. Countries that are equipped with the technology and knowledge to participate in the new electronic world are major players in its socio-cultural and economic developments. Education is changing, too. With the advent of multimedia technologies and the Internet, it is now possible to reach people who would otherwise have no access to certain courses or educational opportunities.

Electronic learning, or e-Learning as it has come to be known, makes use of the Internet and digital technologies to deliver instruction synchronously or asynchronously to anyone who has access to a computer and an Internet connection.

By some estimates, between 800,000,000 and 1,500,000,000 people world-wide understand English. Approximately 350,000,000 people use English as their mother tongue (mainly in the United Kingdom, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and South Africa). Some 400 million use English as a second language (in countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Pakistan, and the Philippines). At least another 150 million people use English with some degree of competence. Furthermore, it is an official language in more than 60 countries (Crystal 1992, p.121). With such a large number of people using English, it is not surprising that English has become the lingua franca of the modern world.

In the current state of affairs, the global dominance of English in commerce, science, and technology has created the need for an ever increasing number of people to learn to communicate in the English language. There is a market demand for English courses on a global scale, and the English language teaching industry is thriving.

As English is experienced across different linguistic contexts, it may be experienced primarily as a language of education, or higher education, as well as in official contexts, popular culture, and the local vernacular. It may be regarded as a language of social and economic advancement, or it may be seen as an imposition or a necessary evil. However it is seen, the English language is used across the globe in countless contexts to very different effects.

Thus, proficiency in English is seen as essential for participation in the global arena, particularly in the economic domain, in which transnational corporations conduct business and trade beyond the national borders. In addition, the global spread of the English language is further facilitated by American media products of mass communication such as videos, music, news, magazines, TV programs, and so on. The dominance of English on the Internet reinforces the flow of international information in English, and affirms the structure of global communication. English is the most widely used and taught language in the world, and it is accepted easily almost anywhere.

Second-language acquisition and intercultural learning can be greatly facilitated through e-Learning. At present, e-Learning is itself becoming an important global business not only in the commercial sector, but also in the support that national governments are giving to educational institutions to increase their export income. There is a drive for change brought on by technological innovation to which governments and institutions of higher learning are responding at a rapid pace.

Learn Skills aims to address these needs outlined above through the provision of web-based language learning in English initially, and then to expand this range.

Courtesy: In Global Peace Through The Global University System, 2003 Ed. by T. Varis, T. Utsumi, and W. R. Klem, University of Tampere, Hameenlinna, Finland

Ireland – 6th March, 2007 -   The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mr Micheál Martin TD, and the Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin TD, today(6 March 2007) jointly launched a new national skills strategy, Tomorrow’s Skills: Towards a National Skills Strategy. The Strategy was preparedby the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (EGFSN). It identifies Ireland’s current skills profile, provides a strategic vision and specific objectives for Ireland’s future skills requirements, and sets out a road map for how the vision and objectives can be achieved. The implementation of the Strategy will help to secure the future competitive advantage of enterprises in Ireland and enhance future growth in productivity and living standards.

For the first time the Strategy sets out clear long-term objectives for our education and training requirements to develop Ireland as a knowledge-based, innovation-driven, participative and inclusive economy with a highly skilled workforce by 2020. The Expert Group believes this vision is achievable. The Expert Group recommends that 93 percent of the Irish labour force should have qualifications at, or above, leaving certificate level by 2020, and that 48 percent should have a third or fourth-level qualification by then.

Minister Martin said, “This report provides a comprehensive vision for Ireland’s future skills requirements and also provides a strategic framework from which the relevant Government Departments and State Agencies can build. The strategy launched today is complementary to the Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation launched in 2006.”

Minister Hanafin said, “The report identifies central challenges in ensuring a continuing supply of the skills needed for our future competitiveness and prosperity.  It brings into sharp focus the long-term importance of many elements of the policies we are pursuing to advance access, participation, quality and attainment at all levels of the education system.”

Anne Heraty, Chairperson of the EGFSN said, “To date education and training policy has served Ireland well. Ireland now has an opportunity to drive economic development through building our skills capability. This report provides an overarching policy framework for the development of coherent education and training strategies to meet current and future skills needs.”

Key Proposals for 2020:

• 48 percent of the labour force should have qualifications at National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ) Levels 6 to 10 – from National Certificate to PhD level;
• 45 percent should have qualifications at NFQ levels 4 and 5 – Awards equivalent to Leaving Certificate Examination;
• The remaining seven percent are likely to have qualifications at NFQ levels 1 to 3 (i.e. below Junior Certificate) while aiming to transition to higher levels.

Skills Road Map to 2020 – Achieving the Vision

• An additional 500,000 individuals within the workforce will need to be upskilled and to progress by at least one NFQ level over and above their current level of education and training;
• The Leaving Certificate retention rate for young people should rise to 90 percent;
• By 2020, the proportion of the population aged 20-24 with NFQ level 4 or 5 qualification (Leaving Certificate or equivalent), should be increased to 94 percent;
• The progression from second- to third-level education should increase from 55 percent to 72 percent; and
• The report also highlights the need for:
  • Integration of immigrants into the education and training system, at all levels;
  • Career guidance and mentoring for those at work;
  • Assistance for individuals and companies in identifying their skills needs;
  • More awareness programmes that highlight the benefits of education and training; and,
  • Education and training provision needs to be flexible and responsive to the needs of employers and employees

  The full text of this report and background documents is available at www.skillsstrategy.ie