The Institute of Technology Sligo has launched an online course to train both the public and private sector in time for the e-Invoicing compliance deadline of April 2019. The MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) funded by the CEF (Connecting European Facility) is the first of its kind in Europe and will enable companies and organisations across the European Union to prepare for the compulsory electronic invoicing procedure from next year.
The directive was issued to bring significant savings and make life easier both for the governments and for the thousands of businesses active in the Internal Market with some estimates suggesting companies will save €17 per invoice.
The training through MOOCs (massive open online courses), which require no formal course entry qualifications, provide high level personal professional development are the latest innovation by IT Sligo’s Centre for Online Learning who have an ambitious target to grow online students from 2,000 (in 2017) to over 5,500 by 2022.
Speaking at the launch, President of IT Sligo Dr Brendan McCormack said: “IT Sligo has made significant strides in developing a strong research base and our staffs are actively engaging in research across many fields. This CEF funded project is a classic example of this research and engagement combining public and private sector innovation and knowledge with the research skills and acumen of IT Sligo personnel and is a credit to the team who developed it.”
Padraig Harte, Lecturer IT Sligo and coordinator of the CEF funded project said at the launch how delighted the consortium members who had secured the project were with the MOOC and added their satisfaction stemmed from the excellent material delivered by wide range of expert contributors. He expressed his confidence that these factors will lead to a high uptake in participants from across Europe.
Compared to paper invoices, e-invoices are easier to process, they reach the customer faster and can be stored centrally at very low cost. A report by the EU predicts potential annual benefits of up to €40 billion across Europe in the business-to-business field alone.
Pictured at the Launch of e-Invoicing MOOC at IT Sligo. L- R; Sharon McDaid (Donegal ETB), Una Parson (IT Sligo), Brian Mulligan (IT Sligo), Bernie Toft (Dept of Ed.), Padraig McGourty (IT Sligo), Michael Morgan (Dept of ED.), Edmund Grey (Tubbercurry Software Ltd.), Chris O’Malley (IT Sligo), Padraig Harte (IT Sligo), Aidan Higgins (IT Sligo), President of IT Sligo, Dr Brendan McCormack.