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Aberdeen University has won ?1 million to launch a training package in e-commerce technology in September.

The computing science department has attracted funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and e-business companies, notably Sun Microsystems, for the MSc.

A number of EPSRC scholarships are available for the full-time one-year course, in which individual training units can be taught and assessed in intensive three-week periods for part-time study and continuing professional development.

The course aims to prepare information technology specialists for the next five to ten years of growth in e-business. Aberdeen's department of management studies and school of law will contribute to the teaching.

Course director Alun Preece said industry reports had confirmed that a lack of information and communications technology expertise was holding back the United Kingdom.

The Department of Trade and Industry's recent international benchmarking study found that "companies generally cited a shortage of ICT skills as a major barrier to e-commerce development".

Peter Edwards, leader of the course development team, said: "We aim to provide more than just state-of-the-art skills training. While established technologies will be covered, the course will also aim to look beyond the immediate horizon to new developments and next-generation techniques, especially in business-to-business e-commerce."