Education plays a key role in Intelligent Communities in developing our human capital and our innovation systems. It helps to create an invaluable cluster, concentrating skilled and creative workers and infrastructure for innovation. The presence of higher education in any region, in combination with a strong local primary and secondary school system and applied research capability is beneficial for economic, social and cultural development and helps facilitate stronger collaborative work and capacity building. With globalization, this recipe helps cities and regions become more innovative and globally competitive and is the second key ingredient in my twelve steps to a successful intelligent community.
This is all the more important since we have just witnessed a major shift in our global economy with significant unemployment on the rise. While retraining is in order, a more strategic approach to help transform into a knowledge-based economy is critical in the long run. In many places around the world people are wondering if their former traditional manufacturing-based jobs will ever return. For many the answer is - at least not in the form they are familiar with today. Our community leaders and decision-makers will need to tie their businesses and educational sectors more closely together if they want to ensure that the skills we derive from our educational institutions can be transferred into sustainable jobs. While colleges and polytechnics around the world appear to be are more aligned today with the needs of businesses and industry, universities are also listening.
For example, in the Waterloo region, the Intelligent Community of the Year in 2007, they are blessed with the kind of educational opportunities that many the world over would love to have in their communities. In addition to post-secondary education, there are also private institutions, especially the think tanks that add immeasurably to the Waterloo region. As David Johnston, President of the University of Waterloo, puts it, the area around the famous whiskey distillery site called Seagram's has gone from "grains to brains". No less than 150 think tanks exist in the area, most notably the Perimeter Institute, the Centre for International Governance Innovation, and soon to be built Ballsille School of International Affairs. In addition, the primary and secondary school system is well recognized as providing students across the Waterloo region with excellence in education. So why bother worrying about education in this intelligent community?
In a word - competition. Economists and educators have written that in some centers around the world, most notably in Asia, the students there are vigorous in their appetite to learn and excel. Partly tradition and cultural, it is also their door to a better life and they know it. Accordingly, communities around the world must recognize the value and importance of education; properly fund their educational institutions from pre-school to graduate programs; and demand excellence from our school boards, teachers and students to be able to be on top of their game. Remember the fuss about out-sourcing? According to Thomas Friedman, "eastern nations now have the capability to literally breed and nurture students who have ultimately become experts in the fields of science and engineering, better than their western counterparts". Companies, especially multi-national firms, were simply globally sourcing the best quality in services at the lowest price and were finding these abroad. Education is a major part of the value chain along with productivity leading to wealth creation. Global sourcing is as much about the search for talent as it is about labor arbitrage. A strategy that attracts, creates and now more importantly "retains talent" in the Intelligent Community will be our greatest resource as we look into the future.
The economic crisis today faced by communities on every continent on the globe may force them to shift into becoming a "center of knowledge" in their region, simply in order to survive in the future. Imagine a community where a significant number of its citizens have higher education accreditation; where they apply their skills in a way that encourages continual education and helps to reinforce replenishment of skills to keep up with societal needs? That goal must be attainable by each of these "centres of knowledge" in order for them to be able to compete globally and to succeed. Universities and colleges are major drivers of economic development and contribute to the community through the type and extent of research and training that is done. Each provides a piece of the puzzle. Universities reach out to ask the right questions; colleges train the skilled workers to meet the demands that these questions try to answer.
As John F. Kennedy once said: "Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our fundamental resource." To which I would add that as communities wish to see success, it is measured best by the depth and breadth of its focus on education at all levels. While natural resources may be few in some intelligent communities, their contribution and greatest natural resource is probably in their people who have helped to transform and position their communities as centres of global excellence. Going back to the example of Waterloo, the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) recognized this community in 2007, not for efforts to transform a failing economy, but for its commitment to fostering institutions that drive technology innovation and share its benefits with the community at large.
ICF feels that this is an area of such great importance that it will be dedicating its next year's theme around this topic. Watch for more to come on this topic.
This is all the more important since we have just witnessed a major shift in our global economy with significant unemployment on the rise. While retraining is in order, a more strategic approach to help transform into a knowledge-based economy is critical in the long run. In many places around the world people are wondering if their former traditional manufacturing-based jobs will ever return. For many the answer is - at least not in the form they are familiar with today. Our community leaders and decision-makers will need to tie their businesses and educational sectors more closely together if they want to ensure that the skills we derive from our educational institutions can be transferred into sustainable jobs. While colleges and polytechnics around the world appear to be are more aligned today with the needs of businesses and industry, universities are also listening.
For example, in the Waterloo region, the Intelligent Community of the Year in 2007, they are blessed with the kind of educational opportunities that many the world over would love to have in their communities. In addition to post-secondary education, there are also private institutions, especially the think tanks that add immeasurably to the Waterloo region. As David Johnston, President of the University of Waterloo, puts it, the area around the famous whiskey distillery site called Seagram's has gone from "grains to brains". No less than 150 think tanks exist in the area, most notably the Perimeter Institute, the Centre for International Governance Innovation, and soon to be built Ballsille School of International Affairs. In addition, the primary and secondary school system is well recognized as providing students across the Waterloo region with excellence in education. So why bother worrying about education in this intelligent community?In a word - competition. Economists and educators have written that in some centers around the world, most notably in Asia, the students there are vigorous in their appetite to learn and excel. Partly tradition and cultural, it is also their door to a better life and they know it. Accordingly, communities around the world must recognize the value and importance of education; properly fund their educational institutions from pre-school to graduate programs; and demand excellence from our school boards, teachers and students to be able to be on top of their game. Remember the fuss about out-sourcing? According to Thomas Friedman, "eastern nations now have the capability to literally breed and nurture students who have ultimately become experts in the fields of science and engineering, better than their western counterparts". Companies, especially multi-national firms, were simply globally sourcing the best quality in services at the lowest price and were finding these abroad. Education is a major part of the value chain along with productivity leading to wealth creation. Global sourcing is as much about the search for talent as it is about labor arbitrage. A strategy that attracts, creates and now more importantly "retains talent" in the Intelligent Community will be our greatest resource as we look into the future.
The economic crisis today faced by communities on every continent on the globe may force them to shift into becoming a "center of knowledge" in their region, simply in order to survive in the future. Imagine a community where a significant number of its citizens have higher education accreditation; where they apply their skills in a way that encourages continual education and helps to reinforce replenishment of skills to keep up with societal needs? That goal must be attainable by each of these "centres of knowledge" in order for them to be able to compete globally and to succeed. Universities and colleges are major drivers of economic development and contribute to the community through the type and extent of research and training that is done. Each provides a piece of the puzzle. Universities reach out to ask the right questions; colleges train the skilled workers to meet the demands that these questions try to answer.
As John F. Kennedy once said: "Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our fundamental resource." To which I would add that as communities wish to see success, it is measured best by the depth and breadth of its focus on education at all levels. While natural resources may be few in some intelligent communities, their contribution and greatest natural resource is probably in their people who have helped to transform and position their communities as centres of global excellence. Going back to the example of Waterloo, the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) recognized this community in 2007, not for efforts to transform a failing economy, but for its commitment to fostering institutions that drive technology innovation and share its benefits with the community at large.
ICF feels that this is an area of such great importance that it will be dedicating its next year's theme around this topic. Watch for more to come on this topic.
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