Cogent Sector Services Ltd (CSSL) has appointed Kognita Limited to manage and promote its e-learning service Evolvonline, from August 2005.

Kognita has provided CSSL and its clients with all of the hosted e-learning technology and courseware offered as part of CSSL’s e-learning offer to date. This latest move provides both organisations with an opportunity to strengthen the service offered.

Under the agreement, Kognita has been licensed to utilise the brand and has responsibility for marketing and delivering the service to employers and employees in Cogent’s sector footprint.

CSSL will continue to identify opportunities and funding to help companies and individuals to use the service and will provide Kognita with marketing channels and opportunities to promote it. The first major initiative is the delivery of CSSL’s Petroleum Open Learning materials via Evolvonline.

Mike Newton, Kognita’s Sales Director is enthusiastic about this move, “The timing for this announcement is perfect as the service has recently been enhanced to serve the needs of the individuals and organisations even more effectively.”

The Evolvonline service has seen a significant number of recent enhancements. These include the release of a comprehensive online competence assurance toolset coupled with an unrivalled set of security features provided as standard. Kognita and CSSL are also planning a new online searchable marketplace that will allow potential purchasers to identify, preview and purchase e-learning and blended learning courses.

The Evolvonline competence assurance toolset has been designed to:

• ·         Help organisations define the competences required in specific job roles.
• ·         Allow managers to rate employees or contractors against relevant competences.
• ·         Record observational assessments and provide personnel with tools to update their own training records.

As an added benefit, companies using the toolset will be able to identify suitable individuals and form project teams by searching individuals’ training and competence records stored on the system.  Training providers will be particularly interested as to how the toolset can be used to support the assessment processes required by vocational qualifications. 

Partners

During 2005, Kognita and CSSL will be building a network of partners with a view to establishing competence assurance and blended learning services (part-online part-conventional training) that can be offered to organisations and individuals located throughout the world.  These partners are likely to be commercial or educational training providers and corporate training departments actively engaged in Cogent’s target sectors.

David Doig, Chief Executive of Cogent Sector Services Ltd, commenting on the formalisation of the partnership, said: “This development will allow the partners to build on Evolvonline’s strengths.  Kognita is clearly the right organisation to develop the service further and CSSL believes that by working in partnership with training partners throughout the world, customers (or customers organisation) will have the opportunity to gain real benefits from this key element of the learning mix.

Any education or training providers interested in using the Evolvonline service to offer services to their clients should in the first instance contact Mike Newton at Kognita on +44 1780 758510 or [email protected].

For further press information please contact:

Judith Cowan         [email protected]

Tel:    +44  (0) 1925  515215

Mike Newton         [email protected]

Tel:    +44 (0) 1780 758510