Towards Sustainable Human Development

Abstract

In this age of globalization, liberalization and rapid technological change, technical and vocational education is a development issue for countries of the North and South alike. This chapter highlights some of the many questions about what role technical and vocational education plays in the development process, and whether it can really reduce unemployment and exclusion. Historically, technical and vocational education were seen as a way of preparing a work force for industry, then as a means to improve the formation of human capital and increase productivity and employment. More recently it has been seen as a tool to enhance human development by creating capabilities and putting them to use for further human development and sustainable growth. Thus human development is both a means and an end. Investing in people raises their quality of life – the ultimate goal of economic development – while also making them more skillful and productive contributors to economic progress. The new theory of economic development (emphasizing ‘human’ and ‘sustainable’) does not accept GDP as the prime indicator of wealth, because it can rise without enriching lives. But Partha Dasgupta and Martin Weale (1992) found, looking at 48 developing countries, a strong correlation between GNP per capita and human development indicators (life expectancy, infant mortality, literacy, political and civil rights). The new approach argues that growth of income is essential, as a means, not an end, and states explicitly that development’s primary objective is to benefit people, enhancing human capabilities to make a better life available to all. Thus the human development index, which measures wellbeing, is the indicator of development level, not GDP, which merely measures output. Past economic development has produced rapid growth in some countries, but it has also produced gulfs between rich and poor ones in many forms of inequality and environmental deterioration. The depletion of natural capital (the overuse of resources at the expense of future generations), due to markets’ failure to reflect full costs, cannot continue forever. Thus, demands for growth that is sustainable