Development Management Policy Seminar “Education and the Knowledge Economy”

The above seminar was held on March 31st, 2015 in the Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies (GSICS). The theme of the seminar was “Education and Knowledge Economy” and the speaker was Professor Eduardo Velez Bustillo. He is a former Sector Manager at the World Bank Headquarters and is currently an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University in USA.

At the start of his presentation, Professor Bustillo raised some interesting facts about technological advancements, including the number of questions people ask Google every day, the amount of new technical information generated every year, and how much people could pay in order to get their DNA sequenced, citing an example of his own brother. He went on to introduce the concepts of “Knowledge Revolution” and “Knowledge Economy”. Furthermore, he analyzed the major trends and implications of Knowledge Economy with lots of pros and cons from educational policy-making in both developed and developing countries. In addition, he highlighted the need to adjust education and learning systems to achieve Knowledge Economy. While concluding his presentation, Professor Bustillo emphasized some of the core skills that can enable a workforce to adapt to global development. He cited skills such as lifelong learning, incentives and motivation to learn, and paradigm shifts. He also shared some skills for future workforce development, including sense making, cross-cultural competency, computational thinking.

The seminar was highly informative and beneficial, as it introduced the concept of “Knowledge Economy” to all the students who attended. During the question and answer session, the participants enthusiastically asked a number of questions, aimed at understanding how to promote actions for timely adjustment of educational policies for sustainable socio-economic development, as well as how to revamp the role of government. In general, the seminar provided participants with relevant information about education and knowledge economy, and what kinds of high level skills are needed for an efficient and effective future workforce.

By Meng Xiaodong