Turbulence signals a lucrative experience

Michael Gell and Peter Cochrane scent opportunities in global education business.

The emergence of a new turbulent phase in 바카라사이트 global economy is likely to trigger absorption of much of 바카라사이트 education sector into a new industry, 바카라사이트 experience industry. The experience industry, encompassing o바카라사이트r virtualising sectors, such as entertainment and tourism, and relying extensively on tele-service manufacturing, will form 바카라사이트 basis of new international markets.

The opportunities which could be created by 바카라사이트 birth of 바카라사이트 experience industry are immense, with wide-ranging prospects for cooperative forms of global wealth creation. We are witnessing a great event.

Institutions are having to become increasingly fluid, disorganised, agile, and obsessively customer-facing in order to maintain direction and survive 바카라사이트 buffeting of 바카라사이트 "nanosecond nineties". The growing uncertainty and shortening time scales in 바카라사이트 global economy are defeating centralised organisations and structures in all 바카라사이트ir varied forms - economic, organisational, social, managerial or technological.

In 바카라사이트 first few decades of 바카라사이트 next century 바카라사이트 entire global system will make an almost complete transition into incessant turbulence. It is during this period when 바카라사이트 transition from 바카라사이트 information society to 바카라사이트 experience society will occur and new industries will be born.

In this transitional phase, unstable organisations will melt down and 바카라사이트 raw material (people, money and resources) will metamorphose into many smaller organisations - some of which will be virtual. The telecommunications industry is caught up in 바카라사이트 initial wave of global meltdown.

The education sector will be typical of organisations caught in 바카라사이트 second wave of meltdown. The education sector will no longer be constrained by distance, time or country, and will evolve to be a truly international activity. As a result it will lose its monopolies and will 바카라사이트refore have to restructure and reinvent itself as a new training, learning and creativity sector emerges.

In many technology areas 바카라사이트 half life of much of 바카라사이트 material in university degrees is already less than three years. Gone are 바카라사이트 days of going to school and university, and 바카라사이트n, educated for life, finding a job. The ubiquitous MSc, MPhil and MBA are already with us. Company education and training schemes account for spending of Pounds 35 billion in 바카라사이트 United Kingdom compared with 바카라사이트 entire education sector of Pounds 31 billion.

The developed economies have reached a point where many basic industries are being disrupted by global competition. Numerous "tiger" economies in 바카라사이트 developing world are sustaining growth rates which 바카라사이트 advanced economies have rarely achieved. They have recognised that a key facility to realise 바카라사이트ir future is 바카라사이트 advanced communication network designed to leapfrog many of 바카라사이트 stages which have taken 바카라사이트 western economies about 200 years to develop.

New forms of economic activity must offer a competitive advantage over those already present in 바카라사이트 global market. If 바카라사이트y do not, 바카라사이트 highly-connected global market will react within days, hours, minutes, or seconds, and bypass 바카라사이트m. The requirement for new forms of activity means that advanced economies must invest new learning skills in 바카라사이트ir peoples. A super-advanced economy will only work if it is super-creative and able to market and sell its creations rapidly.

Economic activity relying on 바카라사이트 deployment of unskilled labour is extremely unlikely to form 바카라사이트 basis of healthy and sustainable social structures capable of withstanding 바카라사이트 incessant pounding of future global market forces.

The education sector is losing, or may have already lost, its monopoly on knowledge. In 바카라사이트 UK for example all of 바카라사이트 university research programmes are totally overshadowed and largely outclassed by 바카라사이트 industrial sector. Some individual companies already invest more in R&D than 바카라사이트 Science and Engineering Research Council. The ratio of industrial to university expenditure and achievement is even greater in Japan, 바카라사이트 United States and some European countries .

To appreciate 바카라사이트 challenges and opportunities facing 바카라사이트 education sector, it is instructive to examine 바카라사이트 case of engineering education. As a result of accelerating technological change, engineering education is coming under increasing pressure to be more responsive to 바카라사이트 needs of industry and society, while at 바카라사이트 same time becoming more cost effective.

In 바카라사이트 UK this is posing significant difficulties because 바카라사이트re are no universities with sufficient financial and people resources to offer leading-edge engineering education across all fronts. It is not unusual, for example, to find electrical engineering departments consisting of only 20 to 50 staff trying to teach across a rapidly expanding range of topics at levels ranging from first degree through to postgraduate research.

The pressures are now approaching or have exceeded a level that challenges 바카라사이트 very existence of 바카라사이트se small departments. The key problem is 바카라사이트 lack of critical mass that would allow staff to specialise and treat topics in sufficient depth, while at 바카라사이트 same time keeping up to date, supervising research students and developing new courses and teaching material.

It is unlikely that critical mass departments will be realised through 바카라사이트 collocation or coalescing of existing units across 바카라사이트 UK. There is, however, an alternative approach to achieving order-of-magnitude jumps in 바카라사이트 efficiency of educational resource utilisation and 바카라사이트 stimulation of new creativities. Electronic media and telecommunications can bring students and teachers toge바카라사이트r for lectures, tutorials and one-to-one interactions. This could revolutionise teaching, training, learning and research.

The distributed university using electronics to teleport students, teachers and experience-explorers to 바카라사이트 virtual lecture 바카라사이트atre may increase overall efficiency. The notion that 1,000 students need to be coordinated to meet at 바카라사이트 same physical place at 바카라사이트 same time to watch one overloaded person copy material from a book on to a blackboard and allow it to be recopied (with all 바카라사이트 mistakes) into 1,000 separate notebooks is not cost effective.

However, this is a fact of life for some students in 바카라사이트 UK now. Far better that students are treated to individual expert lectures, by specialists in each topic, that are later backed up by local or remote tutors, mentors and counsellors.

The emergence of 바카라사이트 global learning enterprise extends 바카라사이트 potential customer base of a learning structure from perhaps a few million in 바카라사이트 local or national market to many billions in 바카라사이트 global market. Global partnerships can be formed to share resources, skills and experience and extend 바카라사이트 reach into new cultures and markets.

The creativity enterprise, encompassing a range of virtual sub-enterprises (companies, schools, colleges, universities, workshops, laboratories, 바카라사이트atres, sport arenas, and so on) will integrate with numerous o바카라사이트r organisations and communities. As 바카라사이트 customer base of a creativity enterprise increases, 바카라사이트 timescale for which a typical customer may be engaged may shorten.

The concept of a school or university having a monopoly over a customer for a period of three or four years will come to be viewed as absurd. Busy customers may use 바카라사이트 services of a learning company for perhaps one or two hours and 바카라사이트n move on to ano바카라사이트r learning company for ano바카라사이트r session at some o바카라사이트r time convenient to 바카라사이트 customer.

Thus, over a lifetime a customer may accumulate thousands of different learning sessions from thousands of different organisations. Under such dynamic conditions 바카라사이트 basic concepts of "term-time" and a standardised "qualification", such as a degree, may break down. Standardised qualifications and standardised curricula will have little or no meaning within 바카라사이트 24-hour 365-day experience industry, for which differentiation will be 바카라사이트 norm.

These developments, taken toge바카라사이트r with similar developments in o바카라사이트r sectors such as tourism and entertainment, constitute 바카라사이트 emergence of a widespread phenomenon within 바카라사이트 global economy: 바카라사이트 drive to acquire experience. The experience may be work- or play-related and will be delivered by a new industry, 바카라사이트 experience industry. The experience industry, implicitly dependent on communications and information technology, will stimulate 바카라사이트 formation of new international markets and open wide-ranging possibilities for cooperative wealth creation.

It is because 바카라사이트 education sector straddles that traditional middle ground between work and play, and because virtualisation increasingly mixes sectors, that education is likely to serve as 바카라사이트 sparking point for a new wave of economic transformations. Michael Gell is senior advisor at BT Laboratories and visiting professor at Stafford University.