|
The Knowledge Economy In Europe, we no longer have much need for unskilled or semi-skilled labour - we can get people in far-flung places to do that kind of thing, and at a fraction of the wages bill. No, we need to construct a 'new Europe on the foundations of improved competitiveness and a dynamic, knowledge-based economy', but 'competitive advantage... is much more dependent on the continuous acquisition of new skills by people and companies, and being ahead of the competition in exploiting critical knowledge.' Apparently 'the competitive pressures of globalisation make the task of building the knowledge economy an urgent one'. The quotes above come from a document called 'Actions for Competitiveness through the Knowledge Economy in Europe', produced by the education task force of the European Round Table of Industrialists for the Stockholm European Council meeting in March 2001. The ERTI consists of the leaders of the largest companies in Europe, who meet together in various 'task forces' to tell European governments what policies industry would like to see. Here are some of the ERTI's education recommendations from the same document, alongside some DfES initiatives. "Set precise targets for knowledge economy skills and attitudes to be acquired by the minimum school leaving age" That's not too difficult to spot, is it? Nor, bearing in mind the Learning & Skills Council, is this one: "Develop local and regional fora of representatives of government, education and business to define the short-term skills requirements of leading economic sectors" "Harness the experience of business for the benefit of education" Like business mentoring in schools and colleges? And maybe this kind of thing: Business Schools State school pupils are to be taught how to run small businesses at 20 company-sponsored enterprise schools to be set up this autumn. Ministers hope that by 2003 at least 1,000 schools will be specialist colleges (Sunday Times 13/1/02) ...or this? "The government is to give company directors a greater say in the running of schools and colleges and could open the way for business executives to become headteachers. (Guardian 19/9/02) "Create a European online lifelong learning service" Along the lines of 'Learndirect', for instance? And is there any connection with this: Computers 'to replace teachers' Pupils will teach themselves in the school of the future, making teacher shortages a thing of the past, according to a "vision" outlined yesterday by the Department for Education and Skills. It said computers would transform classrooms by offering pupils "exciting new opportunities to personalise their learning". At the same time, teachers would be "liberated from their traditional role as the fount of all knowledge". (Daily Telegraph 10/1/02) The advantage that the ERTI sees to online learning is that "Much of the content and training materials for an online service could be drawn from the business world where many companies now have a great deal of experience and expertise that they would be very ready to pass on to the general community." The final recommendation is to "Agree that each government will produce a master plan, with targets and timings, to ensure that the knowledge society becomes part of every citizen's daily experience through electronic access to the full range of public services and information" ICT technologies are "...a tool that governments can exploit to lead the way in implementing the Knowledge Economy and the Knowledge Society...Much can be done to speed up and encourage the transition of entire populations via the electronic delivery of public information and services" We seem to have arrived at e-government via a logical progression through various education initiatives. Is that surprising? Education is, after all, a powerful means of shaping society and producing the 'New European' required by the ERTI. If citizens are currently resistant to the amount of data-sharing necessary to e-government, future generations should be thoroughly used to the idea; what's more, their data will already be there on one big, joined-up database. If you're feeling like spot of light diversion at this point, how about a nice cosy story? Take a look at the Cabinet Office's heartwarming vision of e-government in action.
Back to Who's Running Your Connexions Service? |