A couple of weeks ago we wrote about the accreditation of Intel's in-house training by the NCEA. Dr Dermot Douglas, registrar at Tallaght IT, was closely involved in setting this up and he says the college would like to hear from other companies interested in following in Intel's footsteps.

"There has already been interaction between ourselves and companies like Intel, Hewlett Packard and Motorola on the technological and engineering side, and when Intel approached us about its people management training we were very interested," he says. "It's important to recognise learning wherever it occurs - it doesn't have to be in a classroom. We can work with a company to provide an academic rounding-off for their existing training."

Intel already had a well-developed management training programme up and running when it approached Tallaght IT. A proposal was drawn up for the NCEA and students completing Intel's three-year programme are now awarded a national diploma in people management.

Dr Seamus Puirseil, acting director of the NCEA, believes that Intel is the first of many companies to take this approach to combining on-the-job training with formal accreditation. "We expect to see more and more company training being accredited in this way in due course," he says.

"We have received a number of enquiries from companies about how to proceed and we are happy to discuss our requirements with any company interested in achieving accreditation for its courses."

At present, companies need a partner in a designated educational institution. But new legislation due before the Dail prior to the summer recess will change this. If it goes through, the NCEA will be able to deal direct with any education or training provider. However, Puirseil says that a partnership between a company and an academic institution may still be the best way forward for some. "There is a lot of expertise within the academic community which companies could benefit from," he says.

"There is a growing expectation among employees that training and personal or career development should be part of the job," says Dermot Douglas. "For companies concerned about retaining staff offering good training opportunities is one way of holding on to them. If there is formal recognition going with the training provided then that will also help people to be committed to it."

Dr Dermot Douglas can be contacted at Tallaght IT (tel: (01) 404 2222).