RNS Number:7210H
Spring Group PLC
20 February 2003


20 February 2003


                                Spring Group PLC

               Spring signs UK's largest ever e-learning contract

       Spring to provide IT training for up to 1.2 million NHS employees

Spring Group plc (SRG.L), the recruitment, workforce management and training
company, has signed a contract with the National Health Service Information
Authority to deliver IT skills training and support to the National Health
Service's 1.2 million employees.

The signing of the contract, which is expected to generate substantial new
e-learning revenues in Spring IT Training for the next three to five years,
follows the announcement in August 2002 that Spring had been named the preferred
supplier to lead a consortium to deliver IT skills training and support to the
NHS.

The consortium led by Spring will deliver European Computer Driving Licence ("
ECDL") training, testing and support for the NHS.  ECDL is a flexible, modular
qualification designed to cover the key concepts of IT and its practical
application in the workplace.

The National Health Service, one of the world's largest employers with around
1.2 million staff, has selected ECDL as a means to develop IT skills across the
entire organisation.  Spring will provide access to the training and tests via a
purpose-built, NHS branded portal; Spring will also provide ECDL training
content and ECDL tests, will implement a national tracking and monitoring
service for registrations, access and reporting, and will provide real-time help
and support to NHS staff using the service.  With the launch planned for 21
March 2003, pre-registrations already exceed 10,000 with over 20,000 tests
completed, providing strong encouragement to the NHS that the contract target of
450,000 of the 1.2 million NHS staff eligible can be achieved within five years.

George Davies, the National Project Manager for ECDL at the NHS Information
Authority, said: "Research has indicated that there is a lack of core IT skills
across the service, yet such skills are pivotal to integrating IT within the
NHS. As Spring's managed e-learning service is designed to support a blended
solution, this will allow our staff to learn at their own pace and in their own
time, supported by tutors. For clerks, GPs and consultants alike, whether in
hospital or in primary care, the National Health Service ECDL training service,
managed by Spring, is key to improving skills."

Richard Barfield, Chief Executive Officer of Spring, commented: "We are
delighted to sign this contract with the NHS Information Authority for this
important project. The contract, for the UK's biggest employer, is the largest
e-learning training and consultancy project ever undertaken in the UK.  This
contract has contributed to the development of our multi-million pound
e-learning business and underpins Spring's status as one of the leading IT
training providers in the UK."

Enquiries:

Spring Group plc                Tel: 0207 452 7644
Richard Barfield, CEO

Financial Dynamics              Tel: 0207 831 3113
Ben Atwell



Notes to Editors:

Spring Group plc specialises in IT and general recruitment, workforce management
and training. Spring has over 7,500 contractors and temporary staff working for
its customers every day; every year, Spring places 3,000 permanent staff and
trains over 50,000 people.

Spring IT Training is the technical, end-user and professional skills training
arm of Spring Group plc, offering a complete range of classroom-based training,
managed training services, e-learning and training consultancy. Clients include
two-thirds of the FTSE 100 and major customers include Network Rail, Getronics,
SAP and British Airways.  Spring IT Training employs 170 staff, working either
on client sites or in Spring's three state-of-the-art training centres in
London, Birmingham and Leeds.  Spring also operates a fleet of fully equipped
mobile training classrooms.

The European Computer Driving Licence was developed in the early 1990s and
adopted by the EU member states as a European standard of IT competency. In 1996
the British Computer Society was licensed to promote the ECDL.  To date, in
Europe over 2 million students have registered and taken around 10 million
tests, and the number of people registering in the UK has grown to approximately
200,000 per year.




                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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