Learndirect.co.uk (Visit site )

learndirect is the public-facing brand of Ufi Ltd, a not-for-profit organisation created in 1998 to take forward the UK Government's stated vision of a University for Industry in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. learndirect Scotland is, similarly, the public-facing brand of the Scottish University for Industry . Learndirect has more than 800 online learning centres in England and Wales and since 2000 more than two million learners have enrolled on courses. Only 65% of students complete their courses. The House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts undertook a review of the program in 2005-2006, it found that it had received a total of £930 million in public funding and was critical of the poor involvement of businesses, the high cost of marketing, and the low number of learners recorded as meeting their training objectives. In recent years, the number of learndirect centres has been in decline, though there have been significant improvements in the numbers of learners meeting their learning aims, and learner feedback to Ufi Ltd currently stands at over 90% nationally. The future of learndirect is currently in doubt, with an announcement being made in late 2009 that Ufi Ltd would no longer be able to sustain a network of centres due to proposed budgetary cuts. However, an agreement with the new Skills Funding Agency seems to have secured a network of centres in the foreseeable short term, at the cost of more centre closures which occurred in July and August of 2010. Ufi Ltd are contracted by the Skills Funding Agency to deliver agreed targets in respect of qualifications achieved by learners, as well as a raft of quality, equality, and other indirect targets. However, as a result of the United Kingdom general election, 2010, some of the targets which reflected the thinking of the now-ousted Labour Party government may not survive the next round of contractual negotiations due in 2011, and with the new UK Government promising a spending review and an emergency budget by the 3rd of July 2010 and the that funding for English as a foreign or second language ceased in July 2010 through learndirect centres, it is clear that finance, and the future of the network, remains in some doubt. According to the Independent newspaper, Ufi Ltd are now one the list of quangos that the current UK government seeks to abolish. ... (expand) (contract)