Knowledge economy: implications on education and training.

Byline: Nazir Ahmed Shaikh

Knowledge has always been important for economic development. Globalization and technological revolutions transform the contemporary economy into the knowledge economy. In this economy, a new form of organizations and work govern the world of business, demanding the rapid development of skills, solid knowledge and greater responsibility. Contemporary society thus becomes a learning society, adapting to the new, and in this context educational systems must aim at the formation of people able to contribute to the development of their own competencies, to integrate fully in the socio-cultural context in which they live.

There are certain numbers of factors which have contributed to such a development:

1. Technological progress

2. Globalization of the world economy

3. Increased importance of specialized knowledge

4. Increased awareness of the importance of knowledge economic development

5. Creation of new jobs

   These trends indicate that knowledge economy describes a positive effect of knowledge on economic growth. Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) define that the knowledge economy is a term that is associated with new skills, high performance and new added value as the only way for enterprises and countries to compete in the global economy.

   Even though with different levels of progress all of the OECD countries are moving towards the economy based on knowledge. It also defines as application of knowledge based industries where the knowledge becomes the key competence. This view on the knowledge economy opens new possibilities and gives hope to transition economies regard less of their size, availability of natural resources, level of industrialization, level of economic development.

   Knowledge economy have far-ranging implications for education and training:

   * Application of Knowledge: The information revolution has expanded networks and provided new opportunities for access to information, for generating and transferring information. Knowledge networks and sharing of information have expedited innovation and adaptation capacity. Changes in ICT have revolutionized the transmission of information. Data transmission costs have fallen dramatically and continue to fall, bandwidth is growing, and Internet hosts are expanding and multiplying. Cellular phone usage is growing worldwide, adding to the pace of and capacity for change and innovation.

   * Improvement...