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Skills Challenge Lies Ahead for Europe
By Melanie Reynolds -- Electronics Weekly, 7/21/2005
Europe will fail to meet the skills challenge posed by India, China and Indonesia unless it recognizes the need to compete in a flexible global economy, according to the U.K.'s work and pensions secretary David Blunkett.
Speaking at the Skills Summit, hosted by the Learning and Skills Council, Blunkett said the skills and employment agenda of Europe is the key.
“Skills are at the heart of a thriving economy,” said Blunkett. “Economies that have a flexible workforce and the capacity to adapt will be those which succeed. Our task is to ensure that the working population has the skills and productivity needed to stay competitive,” he said.
To illustrate the point, last week Motorola announced the opening of R&D centers in Bangalore, India, and Taipei, Taiwan.
The Bangalore center’s focus will be on telecoms switching and CDMA. The Taiwan center will focus on developing broadband and wireless.
Electronics Weekly is the London-based sister publication of Electronic News.
