Education for the Knowledge Economy (EKE) refers to World Bank assistance aimed at helping developing countries equip themselves with the highly skilled and flexible human capital needed to compete effectively in today’s dynamic global markets. Such assistance recognizes first and foremost that the ability to produce and use knowledge has become a major factor in development and is critical to a nation’s comparative advantage. It also recognizes that surging demand for secondary education in many parts of the world creates an invaluable opportunity to develop a workforce that is well-trained and capable of generating knowledge-driven economic growth.

What is the World Bank doing to support work in this area?

Formation of a strong human capital base :  A framework for knowledge-driven growth requires education systems to impart higher-level skills to a rising share of the workforce, foster lifelong learning for citizens, and promote international accreditation of a country’s educational institutions. Efforts along two dimensions are needed: to provide quality and relevant education to a larger share of each new generation of young people through expanded secondary and tertiary education; and to train and retrain the existing labor force to provide opportunities to those who were unable to complete secondary or enter tertiary education.

Construction of an effective national innovation system (NIS) :  A national innovation system is a well-articulated network of firms, research centers, universities, and think tanks that work together to take advantage of the growing stock of global knowledge, assimilate and adapt it to local needs, and create new technology. Tertiary education systems figure prominently in NISs, serving not only as the backbone for high-level skills but also as the main locus of basic and applied research.

EKE encompasses a wide range of efforts, comprising:

• Secondary education to lay the foundation of a healthy, skilled, and agile labor force
   
• Tertiary education to create the intellectual capacity to produce and utilize knowledge
   
• Lifelong learning to promote learning throughout the life cycle and help countries adapt to changing market demands
   
• Science, technology, and innovation capacity to continually assess, adapt, and apply new technologies
   
• Information and communications technology (ICT) to multiply access to learning opportunities for those who need them most (such as out-of-school youth and children with disabilities) and to improve the quality of teaching and learning outcomes
   
• Cross-cutting efforts to rethink the role of the state away from sole provider to enabler and quality assurer, identifying options for sustainable financing, strengthening labor market linkages, and addressing the political economy of reforms