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Home > Smart State Network > Smart State Council > Reports > Education and Skills for the Smart State > Executive Summary

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Education is critical to a modern economy as well as to an informed citizenry. The Smart State Council Report, Smart Regions: Characteristics of Globally Successful Regions and Implications for Queensland1 found that the world’s smart regions have a strategic focus on improving general education attainment levels. In particular, modern economies are increasingly dependent on science and technology education for the preparation of researchers, technologists and the community at large.

Queensland must position itself at the competitive edge at all levels of education to meet demand in science, engineering and technology (SET) industries, creative industries and other technical areas in a knowledge-based economy. If education is the mechanism for Queensland to be the Smart State where smarter learning occurs, four fundamentals require immediate attention:

  1. Elevation of the status of the teaching profession through the attraction and retention of a highly-qualified teaching workforce committed to ongoing personal learning and professionalism.
  2. Construction of a relevant and engaging curriculum that details core content that is standard across the state, allowing a degree of local and personal specialisation, and reformation of the senior syllabus landscape to provide a balanced education and flexible enabling platform for students to pursue varied careers and choices that will serve industry demands and create the opportunities that will drive the Smart State.
  3. Provision of a quality science and technology education to ensure that Queensland has the researchers and the technologists to drive the knowledge-intensive society of the future, and a community with the scientific understanding to participate in the ongoing evolution of that society.
  4. Encouragement of an involved community that values education as the passport to the future for all students, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, and understands the importance of the opportunities and rewards of careers, particularly in science, engineering and technology.

Last reviewed 31 January 2007
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