Guardian plans definitive online education site

Guardian Newspapers is to launch what it believes will become the UK’s leading educational website.

Learn.co.uk is a joint venture between the publisher of The Guardian and the The Observer and Educational Interactive Services, a South African company which provides distance education programmes via high-tech communication channels.

Learn.co.uk has appointed Colin Hughes, a former associate editor on The Guardian, as its publisher. Hughes is currently looking for a commercial manager and a marketing manager for the site.

GNL will handle Learn’s commercial development including marketing, sponsorship and e-commerce. EIS will oversee the site’s core content aimed at children, their parents and teachers.

Features will include revision guides, archive material from The Guardian and interactive testing and assessment facilities. The site will encompass the whole national curriculum by the end of 2001 and will carry a unique jobs section. It will sit alongside but separate from Education Unlimited, GNL’s existing news driven site for education professionals.

“The launch shows GNL’s plan to develop successful online properties that reflect the editorial integrity of The Guardian,” said the group’s managing director designate Carolyn McCall.