Abstract:

The developmental roadmap of a country, a region, is definitely influenced by human resources, seen as one of the five forms of capital: financial, physical, human, technological and social (Piachaud, 2002). The paradigm that dominated the development studies in the 40s and 50s was focused on the accumulation of physical capital, in the form of production units, housing, physical infrastructure, etc. The so-called "Harrod model" (1948) revolved around financial indicators, such as profit, savings, and investments. In other words, capital was approached exclusively in monetary terms.

In the 1960s, economic thinking underwent a profound change, primarily due to a shift in focus from financial and physical capital accumulation to those variables or characteristics that influence long-term, sustainable development. The natural rate of growth was represented by a sum with two terms: population and technological progress. This logic has brought capital closer to the human side of development and prepared the next stage, in which education plays a pivotal role in the debates on the factors that can ensure the growth of a country or a region. Probably the most important leap made in the economic thinking of the twentieth century was the discovery of human capital as a concept in its own right, a concept with major implications on several levels. Just as physical capital can be accumulated, human capital can be built through education, by acquiring important and demanding skills on the labor market, which will lead to better results and greater gains for the economy and society as a whole.

To truly generate added value, investment in education must be correlated with the current and potential needs of a state. The fruits of the investment effort are visible and have an effect of driving GDP, of generating sustainable development, with two conditions: if they are well anchored in social realities and if they can fundamentally anticipate changes in a multitude of areas, such as new technologies, the pace of digitization, or emerging jobs.

In many states, the educational systems will have to go through profound changes, to adhere to new paradigms. The investment effort will be major, but without it, the losses could be incalculable - especially for the new generations. A dynamic environment involves dynamic professions, new job categories, a new learning environment, maybe even a new pedagogy - all grounded into a better quantification of expectations of students and employers alike.

In this context, our paper aims at sheding light on the challenges that lay ahead of education and relevant policies, by emphasizing both the opportunities and the threats deriving from the digital age, the post-truth world, and the Covid-19 ”new normal”. In this vein, the paper explores the key factors that exert a considerable impact on skills, jobs, on how the labor market is calibrated and the requirements of employers (i.e. accelerating technological progress, the automation affecting production processes, the role of artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and machine learning), with a focus on inequalities triggered by access to education and the digital divide in Europe.

Keywords:

Human capital, development, digital divide, new skills and jobs.