Released on: June 18, 2008, 5:34 am

Press Release Author: Mary Stuart-Miller / SkillsTrain

Industry: Education

Press Release Summary: Europe's leading IT home study and office skills training
college, SkillsTrain is backing the British prime minister's bid to get Britain
skilled by tailoring its home study IT courses to enable those already in employment
to study around existing work and personal commitments.

Press Release Body: With the British government determined to compete in the global
skills race, students now studying with companies such as IT and office skills
specialist, SkillsTrain, are going to be best placed when new initiatives announced
by Prime Minister Gordon Brown come into effect.

Early in 2008 the British prime minister announced welfare reform plans and
expansion in apprenticeships to help Britain compete in the global jobs market.
Schools Minister Jim Knight is also on record as saying \"In future, young people
will need the mix of academic and practical skills. By 2020, estimates suggest there
will only be 600,000 unskilled people left in work in this country - whereas there
will be 4.6 million more highly skilled jobs to fill. We are at the starting line of
a global skills race which British businesses must win".

According to Myra Smallman, Principal of SkillsTrain "It's essential that people
realise the implications of new government plans. According to recent announcements
by the Prime Minister, those who are inactive unemployed will have a `skills check'
and reforms will include `more compulsion' to ensure benefit claimants take up
training opportunities".

Myra Smallman continued "once they've completed our courses many of our students go
on to find better jobs or to move into areas they were previously unskilled to
tackle. We're fully supportive of the government's new initiatives to get Britain
training. With the flexibility of home study, the advent of Live Internet Training
and e-learning, people can earn while they learn and fit their studies around work
and family commitments".

SkillsTrain is Europe's leading supplier of distance learning courses for IT
professionals, web design and book-keeping and the company has trained over 6
million students in more than 60 years.

End.

Web Site: http://www.skillstrainuk.com

Contact Details: Press contact: Mary Stuart-Miller, 01403 738844.
m.stuart-miller@virgin.net