Training problems in the context of SMEs: Exploring e-learning as a potential solution

Facing pressures from an increasingly competitive business environment, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are called upon to implement strategies that are enabled and supported by information technologies and e-business applications. One of these applications is e-learning, whose aim is to enable the continuous assimilation of knowledge and skills by managers and employees, and thus support organisational training and development efforts through the use of Internet technologies. Little is known however as to the actual role played by e-learning with regard to the training problems faced by SMEs. This research pursues three main objectives. Being theoretical in nature, the ofirst objective consists in achieving a deeper understanding of the workplace training process of SMEs, and of the problems encountered within this process. A second exploratory objective as to empirically identify e-learning as a valid and feasible potential solution to some of the problems of SMEs of SMEs with regard to training. A third objective, more pragmatic in nature, was to outline an action plan from the results obtained in order to render e-learning more accessible to SMEs.;Keywords: SME, training, e-learning, learning, Internet;A multiple case study of 16 SMEs in the Atlantic region of Canada, including 12 that use e-learning with varying degrees of intensity, was designed to explore this question. We observed the firms' training process in terms of training needs analysis, method selection, tool selection and evaluation, and ascertained how this process is impacted by their use of e-learning. E-learning is then characterised in terms of opportunity and feasibility for the development of SMEs and their region.