Being an eLearning provider can leave you stuck in a bubble. Our face-to-face counterparts get the "heads up" on us by being in a business, dealing with the employees. Let's just say that they can perhaps see it coming before we can. But just in case you were in the dark, learning and development has had a tough time. The lowest figure I saw was that 1/3 of L&D departments would see their budget slashed (the CIPD published a figure of 52% over 2010). This is a huge amount.

We need to think practically. Who is it cheaper to get rid of, the contractor or the full time staff? Who is in a better position to expand their skills set than those already in your L&D department? I'm not just making a stab in the dark: Research from the CIPD has shown that headcount in the L&D department has not been reduced as dramatically as expected, whilst there has been a 31% reduction in using external suppliers.

With this in mind, I am not surprised that we are still growing, but at a reduced rate. If the UK is more established in eLearning technologies than our European counterparts, then the rush to use eLearning as the saviour for L&D is going to be less dramatic. The increase in open- source tools is also empowering these L&D master chameleons to create what they want, on their terms, when they want it.

However, we providers are still seeing growth because we are experts at what we do. We can expand those open-source tools for the L&D team; we can provide high-quality specialist content; we have time to deal with support issues. We are in a very strong position to innovate before the L&D team can pick up the skills and have the internal squabble over whose toes they are potentially stepping on, which means that we are very effective innovators with expertise on our side.

According to the latest benchmarking survey from Towards Maturity, eighty percent of organisations say that innovative use of learning technology will be a deciding factor when choosing providers in the future. We just need to make sure that when we come out the other side of this slowdown, we have used our resources wisely and innovated on ideas that are likely to persevere.

Open source is making an impact in the public sector, with many universities, schools, and colleges moving their LMS to an open-source one. They don't see the point in being tied to a costly bespoke platform supported by one supplier. As an analogy, how would you feel about getting your garden dug up and footing the bill for a new gas supply every time you wanted to change supplier? "And did you say there's a broken pipe? Only the supplier can deal with that, sorry. Oh, and by the way, we're raising your costs anyway." Clients want a robust platform; yes, but where they really differentiate is in their content.

We, too, should rely on the expertly made and innovative content we create. We chose technology as well as learning for our industry, so we know all about change. We might just have a little way to go to share our focus for the benefit of all.


For your info, these are findings from the Learning Light report:

• In the next twelve months, the UK eLearning market will grow by no more that 4.76% on the 2009 figure.
• The UK eLearning industry is currently turning over some £472 million a year.
• The UK remains the largest, but not the fastest-growing, European market for eLearning.
• France will enjoy considerable growth (7.64% on a market size of £375m), as will Germany (7.75% on £242m).
• The fastest-growing eLearning markets are identified as those in Eastern Europe - notably Slovakia - which will be driven by government and EU-funded projects.