The Role of Education in a Knowledge-Based Economy

Abstract

The term “knowledge-based economy” has in recent years been firmly established in the word stock of politicians, economists and sociologists. Nevertheless, this term is still ambiguous and vague. In relevant literature “knowledge-based economy” is variably defined. The following features of such an economy are common for all the definitions and have been most often pointed to: (a) low participation of both industry and agriculture in employment rate and GDP, but a very significant participation of the services sector, (b) high participation in the investments in knowledge and “software”, (c) considerable participation of modern techniques and technologies in production.
It is worth pointing out that the process whereby an economy of new quality develops is not autonomous. It needs, at least to a certain extent, to be interfered with. This results from the fact that an efficient functioning of an economy based on knowledge is determined by utilisation of human knowledge, intellect and competence. The first step should be the development of an information society. Education, understood here as an umbrella term covering all types of intellectual activity, plays a special role in this process. It is evident that the investments in human resources are, primarily, the result of individual decisions of people and their realisations. Since putting these decisions into practice necessitates suitable conditions, both local and national authorities together with integration committees should be held responsible for creating such conditions.
The aim of this paper is to portray the role of education in the development of information society and in the process of building a knowledge-based economy in Poland and European Union