Washington, D.C. - U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Kay Coles recently announced more than 655,000 Federal enrollees in the governmentwide e-Training Initiative's Gov Online Learning Center, http://www.golearn.gov, and the numerous agency training systems provided by the GoLearn Service Provider. This is a significant increase in registered users in 2004 compared to only 180,383 users the previous year.

James attributes the popularity and interest in desktop learning to a recent makeover in user interface and simplified site navigation.

"OPM's e-Training initiative is a widely used mechanism which supports the charge put forth in the President's Management Agenda," James said. "The team has employed innovative technology to recreate a usable, accessible and compliant web site. Federal employees now have access to a more cutting-edge and technologically savvy tool which strengthens the learning experience for new and not-so new e-learners providing a robust learning experience."

The Gov Online Learning Center revealed a new makeover of the Golearn site on November 1, 2004, with easier navigation and more functionality. Agencies have since migrated to using an e-Training Initiative solution to train their employees, doubling the growth of participating agencies to 70 in 2004 from 32 in 2003.

James added, "The e-Training Initiative team has spent the past year focusing on unifying, simplifying, and increasing access to high quality e-Learning products and services. This drive in innovation and accessibility to training technology for the entire Federal Government is a model of best practices for the public and private sector."

The OPM e-Training initiative plans to transform the governmentwide resource into a portal connecting appropriate Federal and non-Federal employees to e-Learning content and tools governmentwide.

With the inclusion of two additional Service Providers, NTIS and FasTrac, to GoLearn, the e-Training Initiative expects this number to increase dramatically.

E-Training is one of twenty-four e-Government initiatives outlined in the President's Management Agenda, President George W. Bush's strategy for making the federal government more focused on citizens and results. It is one of five e-Government initiatives managed by OPM.