Work in the Knowledge-Driven Economy

Abstract

The UK's development as a knowledge-driven economy has become a ‘given’. There are, however, differences of view about what such an economy comprises, and there is some risk that human factors will be neglected as government and business both revel in the excitement of technological change and struggle to keep pace with it. For a gifted science graduate or a born entrepreneur, the opportunities may be limitless. For the one in five people considered functionally illiterate, opportunities are closing down rapidly. But the knowledge economy will not succeed without people, and as the workforce ages employers will be faced with new challenges. It has been clear for some time that the new economy will have an enormous impact on work – indeed this has already started to happen – and that the impact will not be uniform. This paper examines some of the implications of these changes for individuals, business and government, from shifts in the pattern of work and attitudes to work, to the impact on the vast national infrastructures that support working life.