The companies are taking part in a pilot scheme giving employees the chance to study for vocational qualifications - without leaving the office.

David Cotgreave, Business Link Vale Royal's research manager has spearheaded the development of Flexi Web, a unique system attracting interest from IT experts and academics all over the country.

"I wanted to put a system in place that would allow small and medium sized enterprises to dial in and get access to information and learning facilities but without putting the onus on them to go out and spend £2,500 on hardware," said David.

So he developed the system, which also dishes out business expertise, with Mid Cheshire College and Lynx Technology using cash from the European Social Fund.

And now firms involved in the trial scheme will have the chance to test the system for free, sometimes using the most basic computers and modems.

"Many businesses will use their PCs for word processing and accounts and ledger work and that is it," added David.

"But by adding a modem, a means of connecting their system to other computer systems, they could use them for much more. I wanted to help them do just that."

But to make the system as effective as possible, David knew he had to make it as user-friendly as possible.

"There are a lot of people out there playing with distance learning on the internet," he said.

"You can download course notes or use information resources. But we wanted a system where you could log on and then simply turn left for learning and right for business information resource and then have that tailored to meet your particular needs."

The service will be launched on October 16.

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