it@ab is a network with a strong orientation to business. Education and training has been identified as a key sector to stimulate development in Africa and therefore represents a potential for revenues. At the Cape Town conference in December 2002 the partners decided to produce training products that respond to the needs of their customers and to build up gradually a “knowledge library“ on the Internet. Cross publishing will allow to offer different formats of the product. The training products will be delivered as CDs, on paper and on the Internet. The different distribution channels are needed in order meet the demand of the heterogenous environments both in the North and the South.

In Winter 2003 „The Internet Guide for Business Information“ will be ready to market by the it@ab network. In 2004 the training programme „IT Basics for Senior Managers“ will follow.

All programmes are produced by African experts and draw on the contextual knowledge these experts represent. Thus it is foreseen that these products will have a competitive advantage not only on African markets but also beyond.

Another training product will be the e-learning course on e-business, that is based on the first 12 months training programme for junior IT consultants of it@ab and it@asia in 2002 and 2003. Currently this programme is productised by the German IT training providers engaged in the training programme for the Junior IT consultants from Africa and Asia.