The Leonardo da Vinci programme is taking forward the Lisbon Strategy's recommendations for innovative approaches to recognition and transfer of skills and competencies. There is continuing interest within Europe in developing electronic solutions to making skills visible to an international audience through such mechanisms as eportfolios, to provide electronic records of individual achievements. The Leonardo e-assessment project is a pilot initiative bringing together thirteen partner organisations from nine EU member states, including new accession countries.The central purpose of the Leonardo e-assessment project is to set up electronic skills frameworks for organisations and sectors, within which individual employees can locate their own competencies and training needs. The project aim is to develop a diagnostic e- assessment tool (assessment software) for small and medium sized businesses (SMEs), through which enterprises can analyse the training and learning needs of individual staff and select an optimal learning strategy within a business and e-business context. Of particular interest to SMEs across Europe will be the project's focus on innovative representations of skills in leadership and management, e- commerce, marketing, communication, innovation, ICT, intellectual property rights, health and safety and equal opportunities. The resulting learning strategy recommended for staff development and training will incorporate effective use of e-learning, blended learning, on-the-job- learning and informal learning. The e-assessment tool is envisaged to form part of a 'learning strategy model' which describes effective and innovative methods for training and learning, good practice in SMEs and sample benchmark data. Innovative learning methodologies to be embedded in learning strategies offer additional features not available in traditional training, and will include:Self-paced online learning (better access, more flexibility, better learning management),Simulation and gaming (enriched learning, with greater interactivity),Collaborative learning (learning in 'communities of practice'; online and face-to face),Informal and non-formal learning on the job (using online information sources and knowledge bases).The assessment process is therefore conceived to address the business context (learning content) as well as the learning context (learning methodology) through the development of appropriate self-guiding software.The long term goal is to raise the awareness of learning needs and improve the conditions for developing technical, entrepreneurial and management skills for SMEs across Europe. Indirectly, using ICT for learning may stimulate SMEs to become more competent in using ICT for strategic business purposes.This paper will describe the early stages of the Leonardo e- assessment project as it reviews research, technology and existing models to develop and refine e-assessment frameworks.