What Works in Education to Get Economies Moving and to Sustain Growth? (Part 2)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/59832006e4b03d0624b0ac64
What Works in Education to Get Economies Moving and to Sustain Growth? (Part 2)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/59832006e4b03d0624b0ac64
Many thanks for sharing once again an extremely interesting article, Mr. Patrinos.
However in my opinion, equally important is also to see the connection of investment of skills and economic development for developed countries, especially in times of economic crisis. Personally, I deal with education, human capital and development, with a focus on Greece. The question of human capital and education, along with their value, in Greece is quite complicated, because the social impact of the crisis has been extremely serious, together with the increasing social inequality that threatens the social cohesion of the country.
As I have shown in one of my piece titled “Education and Human Capital: A Driver or a Challenge for Development?” higher levels of education are linked to lower unemployment in the EU, but for Greece the unemployment rates remain high (especially for 2010-2013) and the country continues to have some of the highest unemployment rates at all educational levels of all OECD countries.
For an integrated view, we should also look on the risk of poverty, since educational attainment is one of the measures by which people are being sorted into poverty. Education has thus become increasingly important dimension of social inequality. The least well educated are at greater risk of poverty than those with a higher level of education (41.8% in 2012 for those with basic education or less, 37.8% for those with secondary or post-secondary education and 18.1% for those with university degrees) .
2010 2011 2012
Less than primary, primary and lower secondary (levels 0-2)
EU28 32.8, 34.4, 35.0
Greece 36.7, 39.8, 41.8
Upper secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary (levels 3 and 4)
EU28 21.7, 22.5 , 23.3
Greece 26.2, 30.5 37.8
First and second stage of tertiary education (levels 5 and 6)
EU28 10.8, 11.7, 12.1
Greece 10.7, 16.4, 18.1
In all cases, the quality of education should be improved and make more relevant the connection between labour market and education (namely universities). Education that can offer future employment for all (recent) graduates should be the target of all state policies, avoiding migration movements abroad, limiting this way “the brain drain” phenomenon. However, there is a large gap between demand and supply sides. A special feature of Greek educational system is also the lack of appeal of Vocational Education and Training (VET) that needs to be better adapted to labour market needs.
Last but not least, a crucial point remaining in Greece within the current economic environment is the power of collaboration among all stakeholders of the civil society, and this should be enhanced, as it is expected to unlock the underlying potential of the driving force, which is the human capital, a driver and at the same time a challenge for development.
Thank you.
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Many thanks Olga. Very good points. Can you please send a link to your paper on human capital? Thanks in advance.
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Thank you. However, I cannot paste the link here, because in fact, the paper is a book chapter in the “Handbook of Research on Policies and Practices for Sustainable Economic Growth and Regional Development” (pp. 40-50). Hershey, PA: IGI Global. doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-2458-8.ch004.
Alternatively, I suppose that I can send you via email?
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Sure. Send to hpatrinos1@yahoo.com
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Ok, sent it.
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