New Educational Demands

Critical issues must be addressed to ensure that education meets the demands of the emerging knowledge society.

William B. Johnston and Arnold H. Packer, in their landmark study, Workforce 2000, cited education and training as the primary systems by which human capital is both developed and protected. The speed and efficiency with which these systems transmit knowledge and influence the rate of growth in human capital are more important than the traditional gauge of rate of investment in plant and equipment, the same study noted.

The sequel book called Workforce 2020 had three broad conclusions when it was published in 1997.

First, the labor market of 2020 will demand highly educated workers who can work with advanced technologies while low-skilled work can be done anywhere in the world.

Second, intense competition and globalization will create “intense volatility” in work.

And, finally, the American workforce will age; it will become slightly “more brown and black in the next twenty years, but its pervasive new tint will be gray.”

Change and volatility will be felt worldwide. The challenge is determining what, how, where, and when to teach for optimum benefit.

Find out more about Workforce 2020 at the Hudson Institute.