The future of graduates in the global labour market

Dear Minister, colleagues and distinguished guests! Thank you very much for inviting me to give this keynote this morning in these challenging circumstances that we face. Let me also say that it is rare that I have had a Minister of Education with whom I have agreed so wholeheartedly as in this particular case. I think the message here is one, which is actually very pertinent to what I have to say. I would also like to say that this university, I understand, is meant to be a model for the practices of higher educational institutions in this country. I think this particular conference is a model for the rest of the world as well. I have not been to a conference where I have seen the combination of academics, employers and those people who are trying to bring the two together – practitioners in that sense, but in a conference of this size and with so many guest speakers. I thank you very much for inviting me along for this conversation. The message I have to give today is one, which I hope, will set out the challenge and I shall overemphasize it, that means that I shall be polemical and I hope it will provoke some discussion

Skills are not enough : the globalisation of knowledge and the future Uk economy

The UK’s policy response to globalisation centres on building a highly skilled population and competing in higher value market places: this is not enough. The UK needs to move beyond a ‘national-centric view of the world’ and to place a greater emphasis on active demand side policy that engages with employers and focuses on job creation, job quality and labour supply

The future of graduates in the global labour market

Dear Minister, colleagues and distinguished guests! Thank you very much for inviting me to give this keynote this morning in these challenging circumstances that we face. Let me also say that it is rare that I have had a Minister of Education with whom I have agreed so wholeheartedly as in this particular case. I think the message here is one, which is actually very pertinent to what I have to say. I would also like to say that this university, I understand, is meant to be a model for the practices of higher educational institutions in this country. I think this particular conference is a model for the rest of the world as well. I have not been to a conference where I have seen the combination of academics, employers and those people who are trying to bring the two together – practitioners in that sense, but in a conference of this size and with so many guest speakers. I thank you very much for inviting me along for this conversation. The message I have to give today is one, which I hope, will set out the challenge and I shall overemphasize it, that means that I shall be polemical and I hope it will provoke some discussion

Fractures in the education-economy relationship:The end of the skill bias technological change research programme?

This paper undertakes a critical theoretical and empirical analysis of the traditional approach to analysing the education–economy relationship: skill bias technological change theory. It argues that while leading skill bias theorists have sought to address some of the anomalies that the theory confronts, there remain key data patterns that the theory cannot address. We suggest an alternative account that takes a broader political economy perspective

The future of skill formation in Singapore

In thirty years Singapore has been transformed from a equatorial entrepot into one of the world’s most competitive economies. Its economy grew at an average of 9.1% between 1960 and 1990. Its GNP per capita increased from S$435 in 1960 to S$26,475 in 1997 taking it above France, Sweden, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom. The economic success of Singapore and the other Asian Tiger economies most notably South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan, were seen to be closely connected to the development of their human resources. The outstanding performance the Japan and the Asian Tigers in international tests in Mathematics and Science is assumed to confirm this view: Singapore is frequently top in both subjects. For the authors of the World Bank report The Asian Miracle there was little to add to the explanation that it was the quality of the workforce that held the key to explaining the success of these economies, but other analysts pointed to the crucial role of the ‘developmental’ state in orchestrating the exponential economic development in these countries, ‘A state is developmental when it establishes as its principle of legitimacy its ability to promote and sustain development, understanding by development the combination of steady high rates of economic growth and structural change in the economic system, both domestically and in its relationship to the international economy’ (Castells,1996: 182). The purpose of this paper is not to engage in a detailed historical analysis of Singapore’s economic development as there are now a number of good accounts but rather to examine the issues, challenges and prospects for Singapore in light of economic globalisation, technological change, and the Asian financial crisis