Success of i2010 initiative in UK will rely on education, says UK report
The future success of the UK's knowledge economy will rely on skills and better education, a new report by the UK's Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has found. The report by the Information Age Partnership's i2010 Working Group, a joint DTI and industry forum, outlined the UK's contribution to the i2010 initiative, part of the EU's Lisbon Strategy to become the most competitive knowledge based economy in the world by 2010. The report found that the success of the initiative in the UK relied on education and called on government, industry and academia to improve how they work together or risk falling behind in the race for innovation and competitiveness. 'When preparing this report the i2010 working group probably did not expect the main focus to be on skills, education and academia. However, [...] it became clear that structural changes to skills and education were fundamental in equipping Britain to successfully participate in and profit from the global knowledge economy,' states the report. The report therefore calls on the Government to develop a coordinated national strategy to encourage school children to take an interest in information and communication technology (ICT), and to persuade them to continue with it into further education. The working group also calls for schools to 'reset curriculum targets' to focus more on collaborative working while suggesting that the image problem suffered by the male-dominated ICT industry should be addressed by public awareness campaigns promoting role models and celebrating the 'excitement and opportunity' of ICT. It also calls on academia to create more interdisciplinary research with a strong 'blue sky' commercial element, and to accelerate the creation of 'centres of excellence'. Meanwhile industry should to look at its future skills needs and work with higher education to supply them. Gordon Frazer, Managing Director of Microsoft Ltd and member of the working group, said: 'We need an active partnership between Government, industry and academia to make the report's recommendations a reality. Skills are a vital component of personal and professional development. However, millions of people are still leaving school without the necessary skills to enter the workforce. Business, academia and government need to act now, or we will fail not just the current generation of school and university leavers but we will fail to provide the UK economy with the potential to attract and retain high-skill businesses in a fiercely competitive global market.' Finally, the working group also suggests that research and development tax credits should be extended and red tape should be removed to improve the prospects of local companies gaining access to venture capital funding.
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