Enhancing China's Competitiveness Through Lifelong Learning ...

Preface
Following on the World Bank’s 2001 publication, China and the Knowledge Economy:
Seizing the 21st Century, this book is another exceptional product I would like to
recommend to the Chinese audience. It represents three years of hard work by the
authors in collaboration with Chinese experts, and the analysis and recommendations
are extremely relevant for China.
Today, many high-income countries are reshaping their human resource development
strategies. In the face of increasingly fierce international competition, these
countries are setting up lifelong learning systems as an essential national policy for
maintaining their global competitive advantage.
Although China has a vast population, it still lacks sufficient human talent.
One of the country’s main strategies is therefore to develop such talent by turning
the ostensible burden of its large population into a strategic advantage by changing
its economic growth model from a resource-intensive one to a knowledgeintensive
one.
The essence of lifelong learning is to provide opportunities for people to learn
throughout their lives. The Chinese culture has a tradition of placing a high premium
on learning and on continuing education. An ancient proverb says “Never
stop learning as long as you live.” This was true in the past, when knowledge grew
slowly and life spans were short, and it is even more relevant today when science
and technology make advances on a daily basis and people live twice as long as
they did a thousand years ago. To establish and effective life long learning system
China needs to expand preschool education, universalize primary education,
strengthen secondary education, diversify higher education, and improve the labor
training market to provide more learning opportunities.
China is at a stage of development where it is experiencing rapid economic structural
change. Over the last 30 years, about half of rural laborers have transferred
into nonagricultural sectors, and about half have moved to the cities. This unprecedented
population shift has driven China’s fast-paced economic growth. However,
the ensuing rapid industrialization and increased demand for skilled laborers
requires an effective education and training system to quickly enhance the skills
level of rural laborers, enabling them to benefit from wage increases, improved welfare,
and full employment.
On-the-job learning has become an important channel for China’s more than
700 million workers to absorb new knowledge and acquire the necessary skills. At
the same time, the rapid transformation of the economic structure has increased
structural unemployment, making training a prerequisite for the unemployed to
find new jobs; and, with deepening reforms in the public sector, more employees in
state-owned enterprises will be laid off and will need to be retrained. In addition to
formal education, this will require a multifaceted continuing education and training
system; an effective skills assessment and accreditation system; and deployment
of modern information technology to expand training opportunities.
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