Each year our ability to transport, process and store electronic information doubles, whilst costs fall, and we use less energy and raw material. What a story! Since 1969 this pace of change has seen a 1000 fold increase in capability every decade and we now wear more computing power in a digital wristwatch than the commercially available computers of 30 years ago. Within the next ten years we can expect to see a supercomputer on our desk. But, with what I have today I can expect to do all of my fathers work in just a 10th of a his lifetime and my son will be able to do it in a 10th of mine. For just over 80 years the electronic revolution has been changing society - accelerating us through the industrial age into an information dominated era. What next? Experience itself will form the basis of the coming age as we have to find new ways of keeping up, and in tune, with a society increasingly dependent upon technology. There is no turning back, no getting off, or opting out, we have a one way ticket.

Roughly speaking the population at large can be split into two classes; IT literate and illiterate above and below the age break of 29 years old. Many children now encounter there first computer before their first birthday, by 10 they are more proficient than the average 50 year old and they cannot conceive of a world without IT. Most organisations would find it difficult to employ people who cannot read and write - soon they will not employ anyone without a good level of IT literacy. Many organisations and industries are now wholly dependant on IT - without it, and the people who can drive it, they would die.

How can I be so certain of such views? For over four years my department has been charged with forecasting, building and living the future. We are more or less 100% paperless and screen dominated. We work remotely - on the move - in any location with an output per man near 10 times that of a decade ago and only two layers of management instead of five. Rank and position is a thing of the past - as are hierarchies and people devoted 100% to the old administrative functions. We are well on the way to becoming an amorphous blob that can rapidly adapt and answer the needs of a fast changing sector and organisation.

So how do we keep up with all this change? One thing for sure the old ideas of education and training will not do - they are far too slow - and at best, not quite in time. Many science and engineering degrees now have a half life of less than 7 years and falling. Training courses arrive on the market just too late and our need for instant knowledge and experience advances by the day.

In order to continually train and educate people we have had to invoke some novel solutions and approaches. First, we devote over 15% of the budget to keeping people on top of the technology. We use all the established routes. Every professional is expected to take an MSc, MPhil or MBA. Internal classes and courses are regularly organised along with self teaching and distance learning packages for other topics and training. For our internal Masters programmes we now have international figures visiting the laboratory from the USA and Canada over dial up ISDN lines to give lectures and tutorials on an 3m screen in a standard lecture theatre. For just ?60 we get the ?best of the best' for 1.5 hours face to face. More recently we have migrated one MBA programme direct to individual desks using PCs, cameras, ISDN lines and group working technology. Over a two year period people can now achieve a Masters degree from their desk. Of course, all of this is augmented by field trips, face to face real life session and normal human interaction, but this virtual university allows us to do more with less! More experience, interaction, experience, learning, and exposure to the best people and material in a given time.

For direct real time training and the acquisition of skills we have also developed a range of telepresence technologies. These involve the wearing of head mounted cameras and screens. Imagine a pair of micro-minature TV cameras mounted above my eyes on a spectacle frame - along with microphones above my ears. If these are electronically coupled to a VR headset that you are wearing, then you see what I see, and hear what I hear. You are effectively standing inside my head looking out. Trials with surgeons have shown the value of this technology for the student being tutored remotely, or the understudy bring guided in new techniques. Operations on the human knee have been performed over dial up lines, as have endoscopic and dental examinations.

In another variation of this technology, ambulance crews in Ipswich have been testing dual head mounted camera and screen. The crew have a screen over one eye and a single camera allowing a remote surgeon to view the patient at the scene of an accident direct. More recently, trials with nurse practitioners are being organised with lap tops, cameras and GSM phones combined, to extend the reach of the GP and specialist.

Whilst medical examples serve to describe these technologies, they are equally applicable and generic to bomb disposal, car and oil refinery repair or telephone system training, maintenance and support. In fact they are almost universally applicable to all human activities. A new just-in-time way of doing things, training and getting educated!