Education and training for competitiveness

 

Project leader: Pasi Sahlberg, European Training Foundation (www.etf.europa.eu)

 

Background

 

The ETF’s Innovation and Learning Programme improves the continuous development of human capital in partner countries. It ensures that the ETF is supporting the European Commission by providing a focal point for international debate and a reference point for the analysis and use of experience in HRD in partner countries. It is supported by knowledge management processes that integrate ETF activities across the broad functions undertaken by the ETF, including networking and advice to partner country stakeholders, cooperation with international development agencies, ongoing staff development, and external communication.

 

Globalization promotes competition although strategic alliances between competing parties are becoming a condition of success. Competitive economic markets have become more open and flexible because of diminishing barriers of trade and lowering of labour and trade regulations. The mobility of goods, services, money and intellectual capital has increased due to sub-regional and global agreements. Competition to expand markets, promote innovations, and develop highly skilled workforces is shifting the focus of work from quantities to qualities and from mastery of facts to professional flexibility and continuous renewal of personal capacities. Globalization promotes competitiveness because productivity and efficiency have become key descriptors of successful economies. Corporations and service organizations are regularly using quality assurance policies and committing themselves to management strategies that are based on assessment of performance of both staff and managers.

 

Education and training has an important role to play in attempts to try to strengthen competitiveness of nations and economic regions. However, what economic competitiveness means is poorly analysed and weakly implemented in education system in Europe. Therefore deeper understanding of the nature of competitiveness, innovation and creativity is a paramount condition for more systematic use of human capital for economic competitiveness.

 

Economic competitiveness is based on the determinants of the complex process of economic growth and development. When the competitiveness of economies is compared, a set of institutions, policies and structures is constructed using sub-indices that try to grasp the heterogeneity of different countries. Based on commonly used determinants of economic competitiveness and various indicators of knowledge economy, three core domains have been utilized to explain economic growth:

·         education and training (human capital),

·         use of information and communication technologies,

·         innovations and technological adaptation.

 

Education and training for competitiveness has become a buzz phrase in education policy discourse throughout the developed world and the transition economies but also increasingly in developing countries. However, it has rarely been transformed into operational strategies or reform programs for education systems or educators. Typically, education reform that is targeted on serving knowledge-based economies emphasizes mathematics and science, information and communication technologies, basic knowledge and skills in literacy and development of interpersonal skills. Moreover, a competitive knowledge economy also requires advanced secondary and tertiary education provision able to boost labour productivity, research and innovation. Many of the education reforms aimed at promoting economic competitiveness in the knowledge economies take the form of centrally steered structural and programmatic directives. Only rarely are these changes directly related to what teachers and students are doing in schools and classrooms. In the midst of current education reforms it is difficult to answer the question that many teachers ask: “What should we do differently in schools in order to contribute effectively to economic competitiveness and growth?” This ILP seeks better understanding of what competitiveness is and how it is affecting education and training policies and reforms.

 

Education and training needs can be predicted more accurately if the forecasting is not constrained by traditional requirements of economic productivity or efficiency. It is easier to envision the ideal state of affairs than to predict whether that state of affairs would also be economically beneficial. For instance, there are some recognizable trends suggesting an imperative to invest in green know-how and technology, but it is impossible to predict whether those investments would actually be profitable. As mentioned above, innovation is an important aspect of national intellectual capital and national competitiveness. Therefore innovation skills are an important education need a priori. However, innovation must be understood broadly and applied not only to technology or economic clusters, but also to the development of economic structures and social systems.

 

This research project includes the idea of the Education Intelligence System (EIS) model that draws on two perspectives, i.e. a trend analysis and theoretical perspective. It identifies global trends that provide a maximally reliable forecast of long-term effects and combines them with short-term market and social trends. The model also integrates social and behavioural variables, such as changes towards more individualistic consumption patterns, as the underlying trends are known to be reliable and long-term. The EIS forecasting concept makes use not only of statistical indicators, but also verbal descriptions of trends; numeric time series descriptions of trends; and expert views and opinions (through the forums of expert and Delphi groups). The theoretical foundation for the model relies on the dual frameworks of national competitiveness and intellectual capital. For competitiveness, the model uses key indicators from major international sources (WEF, IMD, EU, WB, OECD). For intellectual capital, the model draws on the National Intellectual Capital Index (NICI) and Dynamic Intellectual Capital based on the knowledge environment theory. This research intent to develop a practical variation of the EIS that could be used to foresight skills required for competitiveness in collaboration with FRISCO project coordinated in the Turku School of Economics, Finland.

 

Project objectives and expected results

 

This research has an emphasis on countries covered by the Pre-Accession and Neighbourhood Instruments and will reinforce the ETF’s capacity to provide input to Community assistance. This research therefore supports the European Commission and the ETF in finding deeper and wider perspectives to creativity, innovation and competitiveness in education policies and reforms in these regions, and supports the activities in European Year of Creativity and Innovation in 2009.

 

More specifically, this research focuses on the role of education and training in enhancing economic competitiveness and aims at:

• Analysing education and training policies from the point of view of economic growth and competitiveness at the macro level;
• Strengthening collective understanding in the ETF work programme related to education reforms that aim at enhancing productivity and economic competitiveness;
• Creating solid professional knowledge basis within the host institution to provide state-of-the-art technical assistance to the Commission and to the Partner Countries in developing education and training systems for more competitive economies;
• Producing practical means and tools to help people to deepen their knowledge and understanding of how education policies and reforms can contribute to sustainable economic growth and competitiveness.

 

Project duration

 

2008 - 2010