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KIST-VET NEWSLETTER
May / June 2006 Edition
“Education and Training is the Bridge to Success”
Welcome Message
Dear Friends of Vocational Education & Training,
Demographic changes of our society, migration, innovation and new tools
(internet and new media), globalization, changing geopolitical and socio-
political conditions can be seen as the great challenges of our time. There is
a lack of well-educated and well-trained workforces, which support economic
and societal progress. Lifelong learning is a requirement for all those who
want to be employed in the job-market. Knowledge sharing and knowledge
transfer must be regarded as a demand in the international knowledge
society.
Learning has top priority in the working world’s agenda. Machines
increasingly assume routine tasks, which forces companies in the age of
globalization to become “learning organizations”. The classic industrial
society in which instruction was most important is turning into a knowledge
society. Everything depends, in equal measure, on autonomy and cooperation in order to find
solutions to problems and new inventions. Knowledge is the most important asset. Learning becomes
the decisive power of production.
Education and training, research and innovation are the main columns of a knowledge society that
encompasses the entire world. Education is everyone’s foundation for personal development,
autonomy and integration into society and the working world. Research enhances a society’s cultural
vitality and enables the critical questioning of the present as well as the building of the future.
Innovation as the result of research and development is, in connection with innovative education, the
driving force for growth, income and affluence. Hence, it is the basis for a country’s capability to
compete in a globalized world. Innovations that are ready for marketing are necessary components of
economic development. Investment in innovative machines can only be successful if there are the
people with the necessary know-how of how to operate them.
Commissioner Ján Figel’, responsible for Education & Training, said that “as a flagship of excellence,
the Institute will be able to attract the best students and researchers world-wide, thereby
consolidating Europe’s position as a global actor in education and research.” The Commissioner
added that “the European Institute of Technology will put innovation at the heart of the knowledge
triangle. Businesses will be core partners at the Institute’s strategic and operational levels.
Companies will be directly involved in research and education activities, thereby helping to nurture an
entrepreneurial mindset among graduates and researchers. This is vital if Europe is to achieve its
goal of being a dynamic knowledge-based economy.”
Knowledge and economic development are closely related. Today’s knowledge society demands the
use of knowledge as an instrument for economic growth and lasting further development. Knowledge
transfer includes the transfer of vocational education and training, know-how and technology and is
implemented in a variety of fields, such as information technology, health and social services. The
OECD study “Education at a glance” of 2004 emphasizes this close link between economic growth
and educational development.