BACK TO HOME PAGE

EUROPEAN REVIEW

ISSUE 16 - Page 8

Leonardo pages need sprucing up

THE LEONARDO PROJECT has been sprouting new web pages as it continues its second phase of European vocational training. This Commission programme, which seeks to widen training and employment opportunities for those already in work by placing them in other Member States, will receive €69.5 million between 2000 and 2006 and so can afford a web site. On first examination however it seems that inspiration is in shorter supply. Firstly the home page seems to be extremely long with, on the European Review browser anyway, most of the lower half blank. A summary of the project runs lengthways down the page in a long blue box which proclaims 'Promoting a Europe of knowledge is central to the implementation of the programme, which seeks to consolidate a European co-operation area for education and training'. It goes on 'The programme actively supports the lifelong training policies conducted by the Member States.

Official logo from the
web pages of the programme

It supports innovative trans-national initiatives for promoting the knowledge, aptitudes and skills necessary for successful integration into working life and the full exercise of citizenship'. It also contains information on who can apply for a grant and which documents are needed. The rest of the page consists of underlined text links apart from a rather unusual image titled 'Salon TELEFORM'. Following this link leads to more pages on a French project on distance learning. Following the text links such as 'DISSEMINATION AND VALORISATION' and 'STATISTICS on vocational training in Europe' lead to more pages of text and although the pages on the 'Training 2000' conference in Brussels do contain thumbnail images which can be blown up into photographs of the event, some of the text is garbled. On the whole the site is very text heavy and appears to contain basic web authoring errors.

eGovernment to be given Brussels boost

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION and the current holders of the EU presidency, Belgium, are attempting to give a shot in the arm to the EU's drive to get governments to do more of their business online. They are holding a conference in Brussels in November to be called 'From policy to practice'. The idea is to invite government departments from Member States who have put some of their services to the public online to show those who haven't best practice. The British government has a target of getting all services online by 2005 (see Issue 10 page 8) and 'already offer online advice in areas such as health, overseas travel and consumer protection', according to the e-government minister.Not surprisingly the conference has its own web site with links to government sites which are thought to be good examples. These include an Italian public administration site which seems to be still under construction and a web page from the Ministry of the Information Society in Slovenia (a prime candidate for entry to the EU) which allows users to post enquiries for the births, deaths and marriages register. Ideally, the Commission says 'administrations should be offering a "one stop shop", organising their services according to the needs of citizens. Consequently, such a transition to a "customer focussed" approach should also lead to job enrichment for the employees of administrations'. At the moment the figures for Internet use show the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries in the lead both in terms of home use of the Internet and the percentage of Internet users who visit government sites. Small business use is more equal between EU Member States with only Greece and Portugal lagging behind.

The addresses of Web Sites mentioned on this page are as follows:

The Leonardo da Vinci programme phase 2 home page is at:

http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/llp/leonardo/index_en.html

The Home Page of the eEurope conference is at:

http://europa.eu.int/information_society/eeurope/egovconf/index_en.htm

Back to

Forward to

Up to

FRONT PAGE

NEXT PAGE

TOP OF THIS PAGE

THE LEONARDO PROJECT has been sprouting new web pages as it continues its second phase of European vocational training. This Commission programme, which seeks to widen training and employment opportunities for those already in work by placing them in other Member States, will receive €69.5 million between 2000 and 2006 and so can afford a web site. On first examination however it seems that inspiration is in shorter supply. Firstly the home page seems to be extremely long with, on the European Review browser anyway, most of the lower half blank. A summary of the project runs lengthways down the page in a long blue box which proclaims 'Promoting a Europe of knowledge is central to the implementation of the programme, which seeks to consolidate a European co-operation area for education and training'. It goes on 'The programme actively supports the lifelong training policies conducted by the Member States.
		Official logo from the web pages of the programme

The Leonardo da Vinci programme phase 2 home page is at:	http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/llp/leonardo/index_en.html
The Home Page of the eEurope conference is at:	http://europa.eu.int/information_society/eeurope/egovconf/index_en.htm