It is a pleasant, if impossible, task to acknowledge and thank those who have helped with the development of knowledge in the field of vocational training at a distance in the European Union of the Voctade study.
This Irish/German/Italian partnership worked with total harmony throughout.
It is a pleasure to acknowledge the friendship of the main researchers Professor Benedetto Vertecchi, Dott.ssa Emma Nardi and Dr. Helmut Fritsch and publicly to acknowledge their research skills and the skills of their teams.
In Dublin the skills of our research co-ordinator, Hugh O'Neill, made a major contribution to the study. Keeping the first page of a 300,000 word report in contact with the last page is, I know, a mammoth task but he accomplished it with ease.
The camerardarie that I encountered in the distance training industry market in 1978, when I last carried out research of this type, is still there.
It is an impossible task to acknowledge all who have helped with this study and I apologise to those whose help is not mentioned here.
Leading international scholars generously contributed special reports to this study in their area of expertise. In the first place I wish to thank Professor Norman C. Dalkey, Professor (em) of Cognitive Systems at the University of California of Los Angeles, who, in spite of illness, wrote on his Delphi methodology for the study. It is rare, indeed, that the originator of a research methodology should contribute to a study.
My thanks for equally to Professor Dr. Otto Peters of Hagen, M. Michel Moreau of Poitiers-Futuroscope, Mr. Berndt Schachtsiek of Pfungstadt, M. Patrick Chevalier and M Eric Ecoutin of Paris, Dr. Christine Ward of Guildford and Dr. Rainer Ommerborn of Hagen.
Excellent input into the case studies was made by M Michel Moreau and his staff at Poitiers-Futuroscope, Dr. Isabel Lopez-Aranguren of Madrid, Mr Staaf Peeters of Brussels, M Hervé Springhael of Brussels, Mr Peter van Roey of Leiden, Mr Bo Gullack Flindt of Copenhagen, Mr. Charles Kilroy of Dublin, Mr. Berndt Schachtsiek of Pfungstadt, Dr. Antonis Lionorakis of Athens, Dr. Eduardo Bustos of Madrid, Dr. Francesc Pedró of Barcelona, Dr. Keith Harry of Milton Keynes, Professor Keith Lumsden of Edinburgh and Dott. Luca Piria of Rome.
A listing of nearly 100 experts who assisted with the report from the 15 European nations is given in Volume 5. Nearly all of these made time available to meet and analyse distance training in the EU with the Voctade researchers. Nearly all will testify to interminable telephone analyses in English or German or Spanish or Italian or Portuguese. Most have also contributed with faxes, e-mail or written reports.
All of these and their institutions whether they be
We undertook this study to enhance the recognition of their work, to bring it higher status, to maintain its position in the market and to bring to their students, who study at a distance, enhanced status and official recognition of their studies.
Desmond Keegan
Dublin 31/12/1997