Competing Through Human Capital: training and education

Abstract

By the early 1990s, human resources as opposed to finite natural resources, began to occupy an increasingly central place in the European Union’s overall strategy for growth and competitiveness. By this time the Union was preoccupied with the competitive threats which faced Europe’s economies in the global market place. Within the EU there was a major fear of American technological superiority and economic power. The Commission was provided with greater impetus to tackle the American competitive challenge when in 1992 Bill Clinton made the ‘information highway’ an election issue. A theme of this book is that in the global information age, knowledge and its rapid application is a key to competitiveness. Thus human capital development is viewed as a critical element of modern industrial policy.

Human capital, more than financial capital, is what is going to count in a world economy characterized by ‘globalization’ (Susan Strange 1998).

I should like to thank Paul F. Clarke, Manager of Spicers Centre for Europe, Consultancy Europe Associates, for his comments and advice on the contents of this chapter.