The Key Technologies. Some Implications for Education and Training. An Occasional Paper.

National competitiveness depends in large part on the practical application of technologies. Educational planners must, therefore, identify key (newly emerging) topics in science and engineering that are likely to have a major evolutionary effect on industry and incorporate these areas into existing vocational and technical curricula. Because industry adopts new techniques faster than the education system, educational institutions working to prepare students for an uncertain future must teach them fundamental principles, including design, that underpin the development of specialist expertise as well as economic awareness and associated management and business skills. A regular review of technology-based curricula is necessary to ensure that course content and teaching methods are up to date. Each educational institution should, in consultation with its industrial and commercial partners, identify which changing technologies should be incorporated into vocational curricula. Emphasis should be placed on practical examples and on the development of economic awareness in all areas of the curriculum. The key technologies concept is intended to call attention to attitudes toward technology rather than to provide a shopping list" of new technologies. (Appendixes contain discussions of the United Kingdom's import problem, the problem-solving approach, and robotics and advanced manufacturing technology as a practical example of the teaching of a key technology. (MN)