SME Online University

Performance

●	The Most Cost-effective Training Platform Available for 6 Million People
	Taiwan SME Online University is sponsored by the SME Administration under the Ministry of Economic Affairs of Taiwan. The University is operated by the Information Service Industry Association, known as CISA. The SME is the driving force of Taiwan economy. Among 1.1 million business entities, 90% are small and medium enterprises. 7,939,000 people (77.12% of the workforce) were working in SMEs inTaiwan in 2007. According to the founder of Taiwan SME Online University, Dr. San-Kwei Lai, the Director-General of the SME Administration, “Taiwan SME Online University has become the most welcome learning platform for SME employers and employees.” He continued, “The University is the most cost effective means that we ever had for enhancing the knowledge and skill of Taiwan’s 6 million small business owners and employees.” Most small businesses owners and employees dedicate their time and resources to day-to-day business operations. These companies do not have a training department to take care the knowledge and skill enhancement needs of the employees. In addition, small business owners cannot afford to send their employees to attend outside training programs. How to help improve the management efficiency and productivity through outside learning has been a critical issue for the government.

●	Taiwan’s High Penetration of Internet Makes SME Online University Take-off
	With the emergence of the Taiwan SME Online University, things have completely changed. Now small business owners and employees can get the most updated knowledge anytime, anywhere at no cost by a computer connected to the internet. Regardless where they are, be in countryside or even in foreign country, they can access to the University 24 hours a day 365 days a year. The success of Taiwan SME Online University is contributed by the widely deployed broadband networks among businesses and households. With over 80% broadband internet subscription, the University students could access to the rich e-learning contents on the web at great ease. They can access to texts, images, and videos on the University’s e-learning platform within seconds.

●	Over 800 Locally Developed Online Courses offered by the University
	With the emergence of the Taiwan SME Online University, things have completely changed. Now small business owners and employees can get the most updated knowledge anytime, anywhere at no cost by a computer connected to the internet. Regardless where they are, be in countryside or even in foreign country, they can access to the University 24 hours a day 365 days a year. The success of Taiwan SME Online University is contributed by the widely deployed broadband networks among businesses and households. With over 80% broadband internet subscription, the University students could access to the rich e-learning contents on the web at great ease. They can access to texts, images, and videos on the University’s e-learning platform within seconds.

●	Taiwan SME Online University：100% Government-funded Program
	Taiwan's SME Administration under the Ministry of Economic Affairs initiated the SME Online College Program in 2003 to extend business-related learning opportunities to Taiwan's SMEs. This project was initially launched with 268 online course offerings. The College was upgraded to 4-college full-fledged online university in 2006. At the end of 2008, there were 860 online courses subscribed by 300,000 students with 4.9 million website visits. There were 1.26 million course/person completed learning.

	The government appropriates around USD 1.2 million per annum for supporting the University. The government budget is used at buying the network bandwidth, e-learning platform service, as e-learning course licenses.

Host: Small and Medium Enterprise Administration, Ministry of Economic Affairs

Administer: Information Service Industry Association of R.O.C.

6F., No.239, Sec. 2, Chengde Rd., Datong District, Taipei City 103, Taiwan R.O.C.

E-Mail: jane@mail.cisanet.org.tw

TEL: 886-2-255339 88 FAX: 886-2-25531319