Hi-tech schools

Tony Blair's vision of every British school having access to the 'information superhighway' via the Internet is fast becoming a reality. This new age of online schools opens up a whole range of opportunities for organisations wishing to reach the new generation of IT-literate students.

The humble school library has changed a great deal over recent years, in addition to the usual display of traditional hard and paperback books, most school libraries also boast an impressive display of material in electronic format.

Indeed, today's youngsters are equally as comfortable dealing with electronic information and browsing through a digital catalogue as they are leafing through a book. However, although the CD-ROM offers high performance in terms of slick multimedia presentations including audio and video material, it still poses the same problem as a traditional brochure in that it is effectively 'outdated' as soon as it hits the shelves.

SoftCD

New UK software company iOra has produced a product that addresses this problem and therefore the perceived weakness of the CD-ROM. iOra's flagship product SoftCD enables users to turn the CD-ROM into a 'live' medium, allowing updates to the previously impersonal information held upon the disc via a LAN, WAN or dial-up link to the Internet.

Recently awarded official 'Millennium Product Status' by the Design Council, SoftCD represents a marriage of two of the most important technologies of recent years, combining the performance of CD-ROM with the 'updateability' of the Internet.

ACCA

The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), the professional body for Chartered Certified Accountants, has adopted the SoftCD solution for a CD-ROM it plans to distribute to school libraries and local education authorities. ACCA is the largest professional accountancy body operating on an international basis and boasts over 200,000 members and students worldwide. ACCA's aim is to provide a constant information resource on ACCA qualifications to careers advisers at schools and colleges throughout the UK.

The ACCA CD-ROM will contain a number of career profiles of successful CAT and ACCA holders, training and examination requirements, college listings, exemptions and entry levels. Much of this information changes on a regular basis so it is essential for ACCA to be able to provide careers advisers with the most up-to-date information.

Jacqui Cropper, ACCA Promotions and Marketing Manager explained: "ACCA realises the necessity of providing careers advisers with a resource which will not only remain on the library shelf - unlike brochures which get taken away - but which is fully updateable".

"SoftCD was a unique discovery for ACCA," she continued. "ACCA has always endeavoured to ensure careers libraries hold current information, but without SoftCD this was virtually impossible. Now this will be possible by the simple touch of a button."

SoftCD was recommended to ACCA by the multimedia company Media Projects International, who introduced iOra to this project and who are producing the CD-ROM for ACCA. Nicholas Lewis of Media Projects explains: "We specialise in matching the right solution to specific business issues. In this case, SoftCD was able to meet the 'updateability' needs of the ACCA CD-ROM project, so it was the natural choice."

SoftCD is unique in that it can update a number of sections of the CD-ROM by one simple operation. The ultimate aim is for all schools and careers offices to have a constant resource of current information. With the new SoftCD-enabled ACCA CD-ROM, careers advisers can access updates as often as they are needed, whether on a monthly or even weekly basis.

ACCA intends to be the first UK accountancy body to have careers information available in this dynamic format, via a CD-ROM that is as current as a website.

When ACCA originally researched the idea for this project it found both students and careers advisers were very positive and enthusiastic about the availability of careers information in a format that they are familiar with and enjoy.

Schools have become an important new market for ACCA since the launch of its technician qualification, which is available to students aged 16 and over. The new CD-ROM will ensure that they now have an information resource constantly at their fingertips.

Other organisations like ACCA are producing CD-ROMs, but not updateable ones - ACCA aims to be at the forefront of the accountancy profession by fully exploiting this new technology. The project began in July 1998 and the master version is due to be completed in early December, ready for distribution to schools and LEAs in early 1999.