eLearning 2.0 and Social, Practice-Oriented Communities to Improve Knowledge in Companies

One efficient way to improve the situation of organisations and competencies of their staff is to implement efficient training based also on new ICT learning methods like eLearning and to develop knowledge-based approaches. In this paper we discuss firstly an approach for organizing eLearning 2.0 based training to support development/improvement of knowledge in companies, particularly in small and medium sized (SME) ones, which need help. We start in this approach with an assessment of companies'readiness for eLearning supporting also knowledge development. This approach is the basis for building training strategies and will be tested and further developed within the ongoing European project ReadiSME. Secondly, we give an example of social, practice-oriented co-operations, like Communities of Practice (CoPs), as an approach to support learning, sharing, transfer and development of knowledge suitable for SMEs. We present some conclusions.