The increasing importance of knowledge and learning is an international trend as
rapid technological advances have resulted in a highly integrated global marketplace.
Economies which are versatile and adapt rapidly to the changing environment by exploiting
the opportunities offered by knowledge capital will prosper while those which lag behind,
may lose their competitive edge (APEC, 2000; and UNESCO, 2005). The central role of
knowledge and learning has been embraced universally (Fahey and Prusak, 1998; Houghton and
Sheehan, 2000; Conceicao et al., 2003; Rodrigues, 2003; Powell and Snellman, 2004; Dolfsma,
2006; and Soete, 2006) and has raised challenges for countries in the formulation of public
and economic policies.
The OECD coined the term Knowledge-Based Economy (KBE) and defined it as
an economy which is "directly based on the production, distribution and use of knowledge
and information" (OECD, 1996). This idea was later expanded by the Asia Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC) which stated that in a KBE, the "production, distribution, and use
of knowledge is the main driver of growth, wealth creation and employment across all
industries" (APEC, 2000). Hence, by the APEC definition, not only does a KBE rely solely on
high technology industries for growth and wealth production, it also requires industries in
the economy to be knowledge-intensive. Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
further expanded the notion that the knowledge required by a KBE is wider than purely
technological knowledge; also including, for example, cultural, social and managerial knowledge.
Implicit in this definition is the capability of an economy to learn and share such instances of
explicit as well as tacit knowledge.
The speed of change in the typical KBE cannot easily be matched by the speed of
change in the educational levels of a workforce. The prevailing trend in KBEs is that the pool of
low-skilled jobs steadily becomes smaller (mostly off-shored and outsourced) and newer
jobs require more knowledge and new competencies through investments in
research, development and innovation. There is hence, a need to formulate special policies to
support the large sector of the population to continuously learn and upgrade their skills and
compete globally (Mansell, 2002; Olssen and Peters, 2005; and Soete, 2006). This is a
phenomenon that is sometimes euphemistically termed as life-long learning, workforce enrichment
or skills development. Whereas it was previously thought that these programs be
administered through higher education and vocational training institutes for working adults
(Rodrigues, 2003; and Olssen and Peters, 2005), it is now acknowledged that the quest for knowledge
and learning, in order to be effective, must be inherent within the community at large and
that this could be effectively delivered through knowledge channels such as libraries,
public broadcasting and national information services (Miao, 2001;
Cheng et al., 2004; Dvir and Pasher, 2004; Paganetto, 2004; and Kahin, 2006). |
