The EU has invested considerable human, organisational and financial resources to this end. Its DELTA programme was endowed with a budget of over 70 million ECU in the years 1988-1994 for research and the technological development of flexible distance training systems.

The results of this initiative, however, highlighted the fact that all too often there is a gap between member states' real access to increasingly sophisticated technological systems and their actual capacity to use these tools to set up effective learning processes.

This gap, owing in part to fact that the concept of distance teaching is relatively recent and in part to its constant development induced by the evolution of its technological component, is more glaring in countries such as Italy, which are lagging behind in two ways. First, they are failing to accept this new training methodology at an institutional level. Second, and as a consequence of this, they are not developing an approach that encourages more organic diffusion and wider access for the various public and private subjects in the educational system in its widest sense (including not only universities and schools but all subjects involved in professional training: regions, local and national training bodies, trades' associations, businesses and business consortiums etc.).

In order to place the reflections contained in this paper in a wider context it is important to consider the orientation of the EU as seen through recent documents. In these documents the main "transversal" aims, possibilities and problems of developing distance teaching structures in Europe are identified on the basis of the various experiences and specific situations of each member state.

The European Parliament recognised the importance of "open and distance teaching" in 1987 when it adopted a resolution on Open Universities.(2) In the ambit of this resolution, after numerous requests to the European Commission by the European Parliament, a preliminary document was drafted.(3) A report on open and distance university teaching in the EU followed(4), which preceded the more recent publications considered in this paper. These include:

• a Memorandum on Open and Distance Teaching in the European Community (1991);
• a Memorandum on Higher Education in the European Community (1991) and one by the Commission for Professional Training in the European Community in the 1990s (1992);
• National monographs on the state of distance education in various member states, promoted by the Task Force for Human Resources, Education, Training and Youth Issues set up by the European Commission (1993-94);
• European Commission White Papers on Growth, Competitivity and Employment, and on European Social Policy (1994).

By examining these documents it is possible to reconstruct a common framework at an EU level for a few specific aspects of distance education for which it would seem opportune to go into further detail. These aspects concern:

1. The definition of the concept of distance teaching;
2. The role attributed to this method in encouraging the development of human capital;
3. The various phases of evolution in European distance teaching systems.

This flexibility could be due to various factors, such as the course content, the way it is structured, where and how often it is held, how the learning path is realised (by means of recourse to educational technology), the forms of assistance and support available and the type of evaluation offered.

Another feature of distance teaching is independent or autonomous learning, which is strictly linked to the use of interactive multimedia technology. This kind of technology helps the student-teacher relationship without the teacher having to intervene directly or continuously throughout the training process. This means that:

• the effectiveness of this method, in terms of learning results, depends on the didactic planning of the materials used in the course;
• the teaching materials should be subdivided into homogeneous units of information (cycles, modules, teaching units) in order to encourage the gradual acquisition of specific learning points which can be adapted to each students' individual learning rhythms;
• the training process should be constantly backed up by systems of consultancy and by tests (provided increasingly by the use of new communications' technologies). It should also, on the other hand, be based to a large extent on the individual student's capacity to be responsible for his or her own learning targets.
• Distance teaching with the above-mentioned features of flexibility and autonomy has considerable potential in its application. The following are the main reasons for this:
• The fact that learning is free of the restraints caused by time, space and rhythm and can therefore be adapted to the students' needs. This kind of teaching intervention can, in fact, be cadenced according to a timetable that is compatible with a job and, at the same time, it can be aimed at a group of people spread over a wide area rather than concentrated in the same place. It can reach students in different regions, countries or even continents.

• optic disc (laser and cd) offers the possibility of archiving a remarkable amount of data. The quality of sound and image is very high;
• CD Rom (Compact Disc-Read Only Memory). a valid alternative to the optic disc with the advantage of lower overall costs:
• CD-I (Compact Disc- Interactive) an effective vehicle of sound, image, text, graphics and language;
• CD-TV (Compact Disc Television) particularly suited to low-cost multimedia applications;
• Satellite television, able to supply linear and interactive training materials that can be coded and memorized on magnetic supports which can then be decoded and made available.

This also means that workers are gradually required to have ever greater knowledge. Industry relies on, and is conditioned by, the acquisition and renewal of technical, operative or relational knowledge. This progressive shift underscores the need to improve the professional skills not only of today's workforce but, more importantly, those of future workers.

In this general context, the conviction that the EU should invest above all in human capital (the so-called intangible capital) if it is to face and overcome the challenges of upcoming decades takes on even greater force. This orientation is born from, and fed by, the following considerations of past, present and future economic scenarios.

1. The recent transformations and rapid changes in the European economy have brought about a widespread process of destruction/creation of jobs. This has affected many economic sectors, from the decline of traditional industry and the demise of services to the development of new job opportunities in areas such as the environment, total quality, assistance, and enterprise creation. In general, these changes have highlighted the fact that people with higher education and/or considerable professional skills are better able to adapt to the changing needs of the job market and to an evolving economic and social context. The educational system must, therefore, be able to contribute to providing different categories of people (including the potentially unemployed) with the necessary flexibility to safeguard their jobs and, more in general, with access to higher standards of living.
2. The growing awareness that current investments in research, development and technological development cannot produce the expected benefits without a parallel commitment to developing human resources, an essential element in boosting competitivity in social and economic systems. The EU's main competitors in trade, the US and Japan, have in fact invested increasingly, and at higher levels than in the EU, in improving the skills and knowledge of their present and future workforce.
3. Forecasts of the future demographic situation in the EU predict problems in renewing and replacing today's workforce, owing to a progressive reduction in the number of young people available to work. Over 80 percent of the working population in the year 2000 will comprise people already employed today. The contribution to the productive system of new workers (2 percent of the total workforce per year is made up of new workers), it has been predicted, will be basically insufficient to cover the professional needs of companies (the stock of skills requested by the job market turns over at the rate of 10-15 percent a year). Acquiring the new know-how and professional skills necessary to stay competitive thus depends, more than anything else, on the ability to update and requalify the current workforce.
4. The need to increment the working population by increasing the participation of categories which have until now been under-represented (for example, encouraging women to return to the workplace after a prolonged absence to rear their children). Training can be an essential tool to pursue this end. Women's participation in the workforce should be incentivated, not only for social reasons (equal opportunities and increasing employment levels), but also for the economic reasons mentioned above (the difficulty in satisfying effectively new demands for professionality by means of a "natural" turnover in the workforce).

1. Realising a continuous service providing initial qualification, specialisation, refresher course and professional requalification for the working population, giving priority to youths seeking employment and to workers in enterprises (especially those in companies which have undergone technological or organisational transformations and who therefore risk being laid off).
2. Increasing access and participation in training processes of groups usually excluded and/or under-represented in the current workforce. The most recent EU initiatives to encourage the development of human resources through the adoption of distance teaching and training systems(5) expressly refer to women, the handicapped, workers in small and medium-sized companies and disadvantaged social groups (immigrants, gypsy communities, former drug addicts, etc.).
3. Disseminating and transferring the professional know-how and skills acquired by some institutions to others in different geographical or cultural contexts (for example through collaborations between universities and companies). This would allow the results of research bodies to be transmitted and would stimulate and improve the training opportunities in socially or economically disadvantaged regions.
4. Improving the quality of learning processes by developing teaching products that use interactive multimedia technology.
5. Developing advanced training able to transmit to its receivers the multimedia skills required to use this new technology.

1. an initial impulse from the academic world that encouraged this new form of teaching to become part of traditional teaching structures by creating departments within existing universities and/or by founding separate and independent universities specifically dealing with open and distance teaching (this is the case of Spain, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Portugal). In this phase, the academic world was the key agent in developing experimentation, supplying the human and organisational resources necessary for planning initiatives and for providing students with technical and didactic support. Teaching was thus at a university level and/or aimed at providing technological refresher courses for graduates.
2. the later development of national associations and specialised institutions, at a European level, to satisfy the demand for distance education voiced by other bodies involved in teaching and professional training (schools, public and private training agencies, companies, etc.) It is worth mentioning national centres such as Fundesco, in Spain, Fundetec, in Portugal, and CNAM and CNED, in France. There are also several international organisations linking distance universities in Europe (EADTU), correspondence schools and other private institutions operating in the field of new teaching methods (AECS) and receivers of teaching and training programmes via satellite in the Eurostep programme. Activities run by these bodies, aimed mainly at adults, have shown that multimedia technology stimulates students' active participation. Moreover, they cost little and can be used as teaching support for many kinds and levels of training.
3. the direct involvement of companies in distance training, through different forms of collaboration with schools, universities and training institutes. European associations, such as Europace and Saturn, linking universities and companies (including some small and medium-sized ones) are an example, offering training by means of advanced technology via satellite. In general, however, this sector is less developed at an institutional level despite both a marked interest in new training methods in particular on the part of big companies working in multisector markets and the considerable potential of EU small and medium-sized firms.

In particular, EU documents underscore how this situation might penalise the professional groups most in need of refresher courses and requalification (entrepreneurs, managers and qualified personnel). These groups are the natural candidates for training methods which are compatible with a job and which transmit knowledge acquired in cultural and geographic contexts other than their own.

Taking these considerations into account, the future prospects for distance teaching in Europe could follow these guidelines:On one hand, consolidating the key role of universities in disseminating to national and European institutions teaching models and methods that exploit the potential of effective interactive multimedia technology;On the other hand, promoting the methods described before, with particular reference to companies, by means of specific EU initiatives that aim to incentivate experimentation in the distance teaching of specific scientific, technological and linguistic and commercial skills.

The fact that the academic world still plays a key, if not exclusive, role in using multimedia technology in a teaching context (and this is the case in Italy) shows how far these countries are lagging behind others where training institutions and companies have already entered later phases of development.

The reasons for this delay are also the main problems still open in distance teaching in Europe today. They can be summarised as follows:

1. The persistence of a cultural tradition based on direct teacher contact which limits the educational system's faith in the potential of modern interactive technology. The consequences of this attitude are that, on one hand there is great difficulty in finding a common theoretical level agreed upon by experts and researchers, and, on the other, that there is a lack of specific methods to experiment, test, disseminate and transmit to different organisational situations (such as companies).
2. The difficulties in the didactic planning and executive organisation of interventions that promote teacher-student interaction by means of modern communications' technology. In particular, the principles and methodologies that regulate distance teaching processes, with special reference to the choice of multimedia technology, the main ways of interacting with students and the specific role of the teacher.
3. Uncertainties about ways of evaluating and testing activities, above all learning results and certification of completed activities.
4. financial obstacles regarding the lack of quality/cost standards and of parametres to be considered in exploiting and amortising necessary investments. More in general, there is a need to identify the criteria to consider when analysing the costs and benefits of distance teaching, especially in comparisons with other more traditional forms of teaching, in choosing between the various multimedia technologies available and in other indicators of the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the activity.

Notes to the text:

1. Decision made by the Council of Europe, June 12, 1994, when the action programme Leonardo da Vinci was set up.
2. Document A2 n.69, 1987.
3. "Distance Training and Teaching", working paper of the SEC Commission (90) 479, March 7, 1990.
4. SEC (91) 897, May 24, 1991.
5. In particular Occupation, Adapt and Leonardo da Vinci.