WASHINGTON – Skilled workers in India and China will be increasingly better positioned to compete for the best jobs of the future because of the strategic investments those nations are making in education.
That is the prediction made in a new report released Tuesday that portrays India and China as two of the United States’ most serious competitors in producing workers with the prerequisite skills necessary to obtain STEM-related jobs in the global economy in the coming years.
“This is not all bad. Increased educational and family investments made by our rising competitors, China and India, are lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, increasing the human capital available to solve global problems, and creating new markets for the United States,” says the report, titled “The Competition that Really Matters: Comparing U.S., Chinese, and Indian Investments in the Next-Generation Workforce.”
“But if the United States is going to stay competitive,” the report continues, “we must make a renewed effort to support our most valuable asset — the next generation of leaders and workers equipped with the skills and knowledge to keep America in her accustomed position of prominence.”
The report — jointly produced by the Center for American Progress and The Center for the Next Generation — is described by its authors as a “roadmap” for what the United States needs to do to ensure its future competitiveness.
It was also the subject of a panel discussion Tuesday at the Center for American Progress.
“This report is important because it makes the statement that other nations recognize what has made the United States strong, which is our investment in human capital,” said panelist Dr. Eric Hanushek, the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University.
