Surrey e-Partnership Takes e-Learning to Thousands of Employees’ Homes With Futuremedia’s Award-Winning Learning For All(TM) Programme

Surrey e-Partnership is one of the UK’s largest groups of local authorities, public and voluntary sector organisations with a total employee base of over 70,000. Futuremedia and Surrey e-Partnership are already planning to offer the Learning For All™ programme to a significantly larger number of employees at additional organisations within the Partnership in the coming autumn.

Learning For All™ offers employees who do not have access to a computer at work, or who work in an environment not conducive to e-Learning, an opportunity to participate in their employers’ e-Learning programme through a low-cost fully installed PC in their home with internet access and e-Learning programmes for professional, personal and family use. The Learning For All™ programme is already successfully running in other large UK organisations and is being implemented by Surrey e-Partnership to give employees the opportunity to improve their skills.

Surrey e-Partnership develops and supports the delivery of e-services in harmony with the modernisation agenda set by the UK’s central government. It is made up of 47 local authorities, public and voluntary sector organisations within the English county of Surrey. Created to help achieve seamless electronic services to the community, it covers law enforcement, health and higher education as well as local authorities.

“Futuremedia is enabling us to not only provide thousands of employees with the opportunity to participate in e-Learning, thereby keeping their skills fully up to date with relevant e-Learning programmes, but also to offer their family low cost access to a wealth of resources both through the Internet and through specialist software packages,” comments David Cooke, Head of Personnel with Mole Valley District Council. “It is important to us to have family-friendly policies and we believe this is one of the best ways to show our commitment to our employees and their families. We want to provide them with ways to improve their IT skills, as well as their general professional and personal skills.”

Mandy McLean, e-Learning Development Manager for Surrey County Council and Surrey e-Partnership, adds, “Learning For All™ offers us strong organisational benefits. We believe it will encourage staff recruitment, motivation and retention and that it will help members of the e-Partnership to offer better services to the community. We selected Futuremedia because it is the only company to have proved it can roll-out a programme of this size, as well as its top-of-the-range e-learning, assessment and monitoring capabilities”.

The cost of the programme to employees is discounted through the UK Government’s Home Computing Initiative and through the buying power of the Surrey e-Partnership.

Mats Johansson, CEO of Futuremedia, summarises, “Surrey e-Partnership is a clear market leader in its area and has a strong track record in serving the Surrey community by elevating public and voluntary sector employees whenever possible. We are delighted that it has chosen Futuremedia on the strength of our learning and performance solutions, which include the latest implementation of our recently launched new generation Aktivna Learning Management Solution as well as our generic online learning content. We see our success together with Surrey e-Partnership as a model we want to replicate elsewhere”.

About Futuremedia
Futuremedia plc (est. 1983) is the European-based e-Learning provider with the broadest offering currently available in the UK and Continental European markets. The Company has 20 years experience in providing technology-based solutions in the fast growing e-Learning market.

Through the fostering of long term partner relationships with its customers, Futuremedia supplies public and private sector organisations with services and products ranging from learning consultancy, Learning Management Systems, custom made learning programmes, an extensive library of published courseware titles from leading content providers as well as Futuremedia’s sophisticated knowledge transfer systems to Human Resources systems allowing for evaluation, needs analysis and follow up of individual employees, tailored to the individual clients’ needs.

The Company uses proven technologies to drive its innovative products: Aktivna, Futuremedia’s full suite of Learning Management Solutions, which in its largest application has a capacity for 240,000 users; ELSA, an interactive learning system using leading edge simulation technologies; and the award-winning Learning For All™, a fully hosted service which allows employees to have access to learning at home for the whole family at a cost discounted through corporate buying power and Government tax incentives.

Futuremedia’s customers include Britvic, BT, BUPA, Channel Four, Daimler Chrysler, GSK, Hilton International, IDEA, the UK National Health Service, Royal Mail and Syngenta. The Company is partnered with Centra Software, Fujitsu-Siemens, Microsoft, Thompson NETg and Skillsoft in delivering its products and solutions.

“Safe Harbor” Statement under Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934:
This press release contains forward-looking statements related to future results and speaks only of Futuremedia’s expectations as of the date hereof. Such statements include discussions concerning the Company’s future financial performance and the future performance of the Company’s products. Such statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The risks and uncertainties include the Company’s ability to develop and successfully market new services and products, the risk that customer contracts may be terminated or not completed in whole or in part due to factors beyond the Company’s control, the Company’s ability to continue to increase revenue and generate cash, the Company’s ability to operate profitably in the future, the management of growth, the early stage of the Internet and intranet learning and communications market, rapid technological change and competition, and other factors detailed in the Company’s filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation to release publicly any updates or revisions to any such statement to reflect any change in expectations or in information on which any such statement is based. All product names and trademarks mentioned herein are trademarks of Futuremedia or their respective owners.

Press information: Kay Phelps
The PR Department for Futuremedia
kay.phelps@theprdepartment.net
T: +44 1932 789524
M: +44 7710 043244

Investor relations queries: Mats Johansson
CEO or
ir@futuremedia.co.uk
T: +44 1273 829700