What role for education and training in technology adoption under an advanced socio-economic perspective?

摘要

Investment in education and training is an essential support for socio-economic development, especially in countries where the level of human capital contributes to the strengthening of the virtuous process of economic growth. In this context, the complex multi-faceted ICT refers to an important productivity tool as well as to a source of new knowledge. However, it is important to underline, on one hand, the close relationship between the average level of education and the training of the population, and, on the other hand, the dissemination of new technologies. Indeed, it is necessary to highlight, as we propose in our study, the relationship between the variables relating to education and investments, and those referring to ICT field. In fact, the link connecting technology and education is currently supported not only by the dynamics of learning by doing, which enhance the same processes of learning, but also by the empirical evidence that an inadequately educated work force could not effectively take advantage of high technologies at all. By analyzing European cross-country differences we study the influence of education level with regard to some selected variables, using a multivariate investigation approach. Moreover, given the particular articulation of the research field observed, we have made use of factor analysis in order to compress the redundancy of information and prevent the occurrence of multicollinearity. Once we have extracted enough information from our datasets we carry out a regression analysis and tests of randomness on the residual component of the phenomenon. We group the countries having uniformity in education, and then we focus attention on the realities which have a low education level, and which gather critical elements of policy. Finally, we can prove the usefulness of the dissemination and application of modern technology to education and training processes thanks to the relationship between the process of education and the adoption of ICT which are essential for the competitiveness and the long run development of the European countries analyzed whose economy is based on advanced knowledge and highly trained human capital. ? 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd.