Education and Training for Development in East Asia: The Political Economy of Skill Formation in East Asian Newly Industrialised Economies

The East Asian miracle, or its putative demise, is always news. The four Tiger economies of Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea have experienced some of the fastest rates of economic growth ever achieved. Until now, there has never been a satisfactory explanation of how - and why - education and training have played a major part in their growth. This book provides a detailed analysis of the development of education and training systems in Asia, and the relationship with the process of economic growth. The authors focus on how these systems facilitated their transition from labour intensive to capital intensive forms of production; and explore the crucial role of government in managing this relationship. The hallmark of policymaking in these economies is that governments have been able to gear the output of their education and training systems to the requirements of any particular stage of growth, often by anticipating future skill demands. However, the book also considers to what extent this model of skill formation is being undermined by processes of economic liberalisation and democratisation. Education and Training for Economic Development in Asia provides policy makers with a new model of the skill formation process. It has important practical implications for all those concerned with facilitating the process of economic development: from policy makers or sociologists to those involved in comparative education, labour market studies and development economics.