is is not high. Indeed, Kuwait still has to depend on people from outside the country for technical skill and managerial resources; and, often, even those workers that do come from other countries, require additional skill training. The answer to the country's need for ongoing training may well be distance learning.
As noted by Hartley (2000), distance education offers a number of benefits, all of which would assist Kuwaiti businesses and companies to better meet their need for training a large population of workers from other countries. These benefits are:
1. Convenience - Having Kuwaiti employees take online classes or some other form of distance education would allow employers to provide training in a manner that did not take time away from work as well as save travel expenses or time lost from the job.
2. Choice - The software and technologies available to employees for training purposes is vast. Workers in Kuwait could take courses currently offered by local colleges or universities, or companies themselves could develop and prepare a distance learning course that would directly meet the needs of the company. Further, online access to the world wide web would allow workers to draw on additional resources within the community and so better learn the skills they need.
3. Flexibility - Training can be delivered to any employees at any time the company chooses using whatever software and technology the company selects. Distance learning programs can be highly flexible.
4. Improved communication with instructors - Distance learning offers many learners more opportunities to communicate with their instructors than do many face-to-face classrooms. Further, because workers often have time to reflect on the material they have been presented with via distance education methods, the questions they ask are more to the point and learning is enhanced.
5. Time to reflect - There are always people who are reluctant to comm...