Business Excellence, Vol. 4 No. 1, 2010.
Review article
EDUCATION IN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF WESTERN BALKANS - ANALYSIS OF STRATEGIC APPROACHES
Ljiljana Kordić
; Faculty of Management, Novi Sad
Abstract
Th e countries of the Western Balkans have common socio-economic goals – EU integration
and achieving knowledge based economies. Th eir strategic plans are essential tools
for the realization of that future for the region. Taking into account the role of education in
macroeconomic development, this paper seeks to answer the issues of the quality of their
strategic priorities and objectives pertaining to education; how consistent they are with the
requirements of economic development, and to what extent these priorities are valuable and
applicable. Comparison of the evidence of the state of education and competitiveness with
the priorities and objectives defi ned in the strategic documents of economic and educational
development, shows that planning is based more on the ideas of the EU education area and
less on local circumstances and thus cannot be a successful tool for economic development.
Finally, the author makes proposals for changing the priorities in the strategic approaches to
development. Th e main recommendation is that if Western Balkans intend to produce skilled
human resources, these states will have to create and implement detailed human capital strategies
based on the attributes and needs of the most numerous conglomerate of the working
population, along with medium-term economic development plans.
Keywords
Western Balkans; strategic planning; education; economic development; EU
Hrčak ID:
60996
URI
Publication date:
30.6.2010.
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