As the financial crisis rages, decision-makers around the world turn to the educational system for help, as they have done every time there has been an economic crisis since the mid-eighteenth century. As if it were possible to educate ourselves out of a crisis. Proposing educational reforms at a time like this is close to lunacy, says Professor D. W. Livingstone. He is the editor of the acclaimed and award-winning book 'The Education- Jobs Gap' and the forthcoming sequel 'Education and Jobs – Exploring the Gaps'. In these books, he and other researchers prove that most Canadians already have more formal educational credentials than they can use in their jobs. They often do repetitive work where they are not allowed to fully use their potential. They are what Professor Livingstone defines as "underemployed".

In the forthcoming book, Professor Livingstone underlines two of the most relevant findings: "The first finding is that almost everybody is engaged in informal learning outside of organized educational programmes. It involves for instance work-related learning of new technologies, computers, health and safety issues. This very extensive informal learning is typically ignored in most research, but it is seen by workers themselves to be at least as useful for improving job performance as further formal education."

33 percent underemployed
The second important finding in the book is that there is a discrepancy between the extensive learning that people do, both formally and informally, and the extent to which people are able to apply this learning to their jobs.

"We have a growing phenomenon of what is called variously underemployment, overqualification or overeducation. A growing number of people have more formal educational credentials, skills and knowledge than they are able to use in their jobs. Hence, our research concludes that the skills crisis is definitely a myth. There are skills shortages in various places and in various periods of times. In Canada, for example, we have a chronic skills shortage in skilled trades. But in most cases these shortages are quite rapidly addressed and closed. The larger problem is that we are producing a lot more skilled and highly knowledgeable people than the current job market will absorb."

According to Professor Livingstone, this is a problem that needs to be addressed immediately. In Canada, USA and Great Britain, the best estimates are that at least one third of the employed work force has better credentials than their jobs require. The problem is most obvious among immigrants in Europe and North America. These are the most underemployed workers and their qualifications from their home countries are not being recognized. It is therefore not uncommon to meet an immigrant who works as a taxi driver, even though he is, in fact, a highly skilled doctor or engineer educated in his home country.

"It is a very large and growing problem in increasingly wider parts of society," says Professor Livingstone.

"It is a problem in terms of social justice and personal investment issues. Most people take the approach that he or she has spent energy, many years and money on getting a formal education with the expectation that they one day can get the kind of job they want. But many of them will never get the job they expect. More and more people enter the job market with higher credentials than they are likely to get a job with. Now, people are pragmatically accepting that they need formal higher credentials to pass some sort of screening when they apply for a job - even though the demanded qualifications are not actually necessary for carrying out the job. Beneath this apparent acceptance, many are likely angry about not being able to use their full potential. The fact is that we are wasting a lot of talent."

Eighteenth-century solutions
But it seems as if decision-makers around the world are willing to waste even more talent. Almost every country is dedicated to invest even more heavily in advanced education, and now in organized lifelong learning, with governments presuming this is a high priority for resolving economic and social problems. Particularly when we face a financial crisis, like the one tormenting the globe at the moment, more education is the medicine politicians typically turn to.

"Human capital theory has been dominant in intellectual and policy circles for a couple of generations and it continues to be used to advocate for more investment in education. The logic is that more education will give us greater economic growth and sustainable economies. That is clearly fallacious. Nevertheless, the renewal and the reform of the education system are still widely seen as central components to solve our economic problems. It has been so since the 18th century, and it is about time we focus on economic solutions for economic problems and let the educational system focus on what it does best."

Democratize the work place
The conclusions in the book "Education and Jobs – Exploring the Gaps" have extensive implications for the policies of all participants in the labour market.

"We need to look at the reorganization of paid employment for a very large number of people. It is a huge task, but if we keep shying away from it and ignoring the problem, it will only get larger and fester. In the 1960s, with growing numbers of students graduating from universities in North America and Europe, underemployment began to be feared by some seers, but the problem today is on a much larger scale."

Professor Livingstone outlines three strategies that address the problem:

• The first strategy is time distribution. We have more and more people working longer hours than they want to and a growing number of people who cannot get a full-time job. Therefore, there is a need to redesign the work-time distribution.
  
• The second strategy is democratization of work places, allowing more people with creative and decision- making skills to use the skills they are not allowed to use today. In fact, the most highly underemployed people today are industrial workers and service workers because people are going into those kinds of jobs with increasingly high levels of formal education and are not allowed to apply it in any particular way. The vast majority of people in the workforce are entirely capable of making creative and constructive contributions – if they are allowed to do so.
  
• The third strategy is to create more jobs in sectors that are desperately looking for more people. This means creating more jobs in sectors such as green tech and health care.

But are these problems being addressed by today's governments? The short answer is no, argues Professor Livingstone

"Unfortunately, there is a strong mindset today within governments, among policy analysts and economists in particular, that we need to invest in more educational solutions to provide economic salvation. And it is not working." In the words of Pink Floyd: We don't need no education

By Christian Blomgreen quarterly@dpu.dk

DAVID LIVINGSTONE
Professor Livingstone is Canada Research Chair I Work and Lifelong Learning, and Head of the Centre for the Study of Education and Work at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at University of Toronto. He is the editor of the forthcoming book "Education and Jobs - Exploring the Gaps", a sequel to the critically acclaimed and award-winning book "The Education-Jobs Gap – Underemployment or Economic Democracy".

Read more:
The website www.wallnetwork.ca has a wealth of articles and research on lifelong learning, formal and informal learning including national surveys and case studies in different sectors.