UK company Futuremedia has teamed up with BT to launch an online training portal. Futuremedia has signed up ten partners to offer courses in IT, business and finance through easycando.com. The venture uses Solstra software, developed jointly with BT. The portal offers 1500 courses in topics such as Web design and Microsoft accreditation - its Microsoft MSE course costs £500. It also offers a chill-out room for students to discuss course problems with other students, as well as online tutor services. Training companies will pay £5000 per year to join the portal, with Futuremedia taking a percentage of fees from courses sold. It will also offer an affiliate programme, where companies can put a link to easycando on their Web site. This facility is free, with affiliates taking a 12 per cent cut of course fees sold via their sites. Alternatively, companies can pay £5,000 per year to have a direct link to the site and get between 20 and 30 per cent of course fees. Mats Johansson, MD for future media at easycando.com, said the company was about to sign a partner deal with an IT publisher. According to Johansson, the online training sector was worth $200 million in 1999, with a compound growth rate of 100 per cent per year. ® Related Stories Belgian buy boosts Azlan training arm Azlan plays e-commerce card Poor Luddites to get computer training