“The never-ending search for competitive advantage in the global knowledge economy has led all public policymakers to focus on education as a key factor in strengthening competitiveness, employment and social cohesion.” This was how Noel Dempsey, Ireland’s minister for education and science, summed up the importance of education at a lively meeting of OECD education ministers in Dublin in March.

These are important times for education in all the member countries of the OECD. The neverending search for competitive advantage in the global knowledge economy has led all public policy-makers to focus on education as a key factor in strengthening competitiveness, employment and social cohesion.

Higher grades, better students? Or higher grades, lower standards? When more students achieve high exam grades, some claim the credit for supposedly better education systems. Others suggest that requirements must have been lowered. Behind these suspicions, there is usually a belief that somehow there is a natural ceiling to overall performance in education. This would be a mistaken view.

Has teaching lost its appeal as a career choice? There are many indications that it has. But governments can take action.

Social science research and international organisations are awash with jargon that many non-specialists find either confusing or unhelpful. Can this be said of the notion of social capital? According to Robert D. Putnam, Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at the JFK School of Government at Harvard, and author of the influential book, Bowling Alone, social capital is an idea whose time has come.

Where were you when the Twin Towers collapsed? Can you remember receiving your first diploma, your first bicycle or your first kiss?

When a company makes a decision to invest, one of the most important factors is the quality of the workforce. Every entrepreneur is aware of this; business literature is rich in accounts of capital investments that went wrong because of some mismatch with the local labour pool. Governments, businesses, people: we all lose when that happens. We all gain from a good match.

Irishman Peter Sutherland has had quite a career in both international policy-making and business. From top jobs as European commissioner for competition policy and directorgeneral of the GATT, and founding chief of the WTO to chairmanships at Goldman Sachs International and BP, Dr Sutherland’s CV is indeed outstanding. So much so, in fact, that a new centre was named after him at Trinity College Dublin in December 2002.

Who would disagree that education and training are among the most significant investments a society can make for its own development? Not many, though it begs the question: why, then, have so many countries allowed public investment in education and training to lag growth in national wealth?

Educating children is vital for maintaining our standard of living now and in the future. This thought is not new and most of us are well aware of it. What is new is the way we need to work to prepare our children for that future.

University funding is hitting the headlines across Europe. In January the UK government only narrowly won a parliamentary vote to reform funding of higher education, after the prime minister, Tony Blair, put his “authority on the line”. Other European leaders will have been watching closely, as they also plan to revamp their higher education systems.

The information society is all very well, but the trouble is ensuring everyone can be trained up for it, especially those who need it most.