Education and Training for a Technological World. Information Series No. 267.

Today, this country is facing awesome challenges. Technology is changing all aspects of life, while work force requirements shift rapidly, swelling the numbers of workers who need to be retrained. At the same time, information technologies are creating changes in the automated office. Higher-level literacy is required for most workers in this sector. As the economy moves from an industrial to an information base, the mass educational approach designed to turn out productive workers for industry is no longer deemed appropriate. Rather, education for the future must be improved; not only must schools reemphasize the basics, they must expand the traditional curriculum to include communications, higher-level problem-solving skills, and scientific and technological literacy. Whereas only 7 percent of this country's new jobs will be in high-technology occupations, programs to train workers for these jobs must be designed and implemented quickly if the United States is to compete in the international marketplace of the new global economy. Educators at all levels should cooperate to provide their students with higher levels of mathematics, language, science, and computer literacy skills, along with critical thinking and reasoning skills. (This paper provides information about and examples of the types of programs needed to prepare persons for the new technological jobs that are emerging.) (KC)