Provide a case study of how Learning has been successfully

Provide a case study of how eLearning has been successfully applied to one or two
manufacturing SMEs.
Student's name
Institution Affiliation(s)

Introduction
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) make up a critical part of the growth of
economies around the world and are a vital tool in job creation. Subsequently, many nations
consider both learning and training in SMEs' mission-critical. A company's venture in both
updating employee's skills and training them for new skills is a crucial element of their growth in
any knowledge-based economy (Raymond, Bergeron, & Gauvin, 2012). However, SMEs have
not been providing adequate training due to a number of reasons.
(i) SMEs are not able to spare time for their employees to join external learning
programs.
(ii) Training employees internally has proved to be too expensive for SMEs.
Consequently, SMEs have turned to e-learning to deliver teaching to their employees as
the merits accompanying it are sure to address the above issues (Jones, Packham, & Pickernell,
2013). On the contrary, not many SMEs have embraced e-learning to train their staff because
they face barriers. In many states around the globe, SMEs play a substantial role in the
development of the economy in different styles, and their influence towards a dynamic economy
has been acknowledged.
SMEs are firms that have less than 500 employees. They make up the mainstream of
businesses in the world. Also, they represent the fastest emerging sector of the economy and can
be said to be the foundation for the development of any economy (Hughes, 2019). SMEs have
high adaptability and flexibility, thus represent the economic segment responsible for creating
the most employment opportunities making them remain an essential factor in the growth of the
economy in any region and around the world.
1

Despite SMEs' enormous contribution to the world's economy, little study has been done
on them, and this is even though the most prosperous economies are the ones with the best-
trained personnel (Katambur, 2019). Thus, it is essential to establish the barriers that SMEs face
in terms of training, specifically e-learning, to be in a spot to help them maintain their
development and sustainability. The purpose of this research is to provide a case study of how
eLearning has been successfully applied to manufacturing SMEs. The paper will identify the best
practices for the successful application of e-learning in SMEs (Jones et al., 2013).
Learning and training in SMEs
The importance of training and their effectiveness in enhancing productivity was realized
by the governments of various nations, which led to an increased amount of investments and
resourced allocation in different programs that encourage training and management in all
medium scale and small scale enterprises (Manuela, 2010). It is understood that imparting
training would be an influential tool to develop competencies that would consequently add to the
growth process and result in increased profits for the firm. Despite the importance of training on
SME performance, many organizations remain reluctant to introduce these programs. The most
conventional training programs that are commonly implemented in SMEs are unplanned,
informal, reactive, and focus on short term goals (Raymond et al., 2012).
A case study of successful application of eLearning in manufacturing SMEs: Flood
Protection Solutions.
Flood Protection Solutions is a manufacturing SME based in Nottingham in the UK.
Crowther, the director of Flood Protection Solutions, started using online courses and eLearning
in order to boost company sales. Factors such as affordability and the flexibility of eLearning
made it appealing to the director and the SME (Aldred, 2017).
2