“Crossing into the E-Learning Territory in the Corporate Environment - One Bridge at a Time”: Lessons from the South African Banking Sector

Abstract

A number of trends, which include technological developments, the growth of the Internet, legislation and business imperatives, have accelerated the move to e-learning in the corporate world. The purpose of the study on which this paper is based was thus to investigate the integration of e-learning into the banking training environment of a number of South African banks. This study involved five South Africans banks and the Banking Sector Education and Training (Bankseta). Four of these banks are the biggest banks in South Africa and they represent 80% of the learners in the banking industry (Bankseta, 2003). A qualitative approach was employed, involving observation and legislation analysis in addition to focus group and key informant interviews. The findings of this study appear to indicate that banks in South Africa were fairly competent in the integration of e-learning for human resources development in the corporate training environment.