Among the many speakers at the Training in Action conference in Italy in June was Pascal Wattiaux, of Disruptive Play and P W Sport Ltd, who is advising the International Olympic Committee and especially those organising the London Olympics of 2012. He explained how an Olympics is equivalent to starting a massive organisation from scratch – the London Olympics is expected to employ some 100,000 people in addition to those involved in creating the Olympic facilities – and each of these people has learning needs.

“E-learning, and particularly the use of serious games and simulations, is an exceptionally efficient and cost-effective way of giving these people the knowledge and skills they need,” he said. “And it is only now that the technologies exist to deliver this sort of learning.”

Comment:  The thought of getting a lucrative Olympic e-learning contract or two over the next five years should be attractive for UK e-learning content and systems developers. The question is, though, are the UK’s e-learning skills more than a match for e-learning developers on the Continent? At present, on the evidence of this conference, that question is very much open to debate.