U.S. economic productivity

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussions' started by Gert Potgieter, Apr 25, 2002.

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  1. Hamish McRae: Mind the gap, Mr Chancellor.

    This commentary from The Independent (UK) is clearly “off topic” for degreeinfo.com, but is perhaps interesting nonetheless. The basic theme is that the IT revolution should be generating long-term improvements in economic productivity. This seems to be the case in the U.S., but less so in the U.K. and Europe – even though the levels of investment have been comparable. Effective use of new technology needs people who can adapt and learn new skills and approaches to their work. This is where the commentary gets interesting in the light of discussion (and flame wars) here about the relative focus on depth in U.K. universities versus breadth in U.S. universities. A snippet:
    • … When manufacturing was a more important part of the world economy, technical skills were most needed and the educational systems of Germany and Japan excelled at delivering them. But applying IT needs a different sort of skill and the issue is which countries are generating those skills best … the whole communications revolution has been so swift that it is impossible to have people trained at university to do the jobs. Ten years ago there were no university courses in, say, web design, for the simple reason that there was no web. Still, having people who know how to learn must matter and that was supposed to be the key skill we were taught at college.
    An underlying message is that the U.S. education system, with its focus on breadth (at least at the undergraduate level) is serving the country well because it generates an educated workforce capable of adapting to new opportunities.
     

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