B2 – Upper Intermediate
It has been demonstrated that education has the greatest impact on one’s economic success. Does this imply that increased education has more positive economic effects, taking into account the numerous factors brought about by technological development that influences the skill set needed by the economy.
Watch the video below to learn more why more education is not always necessarily better.
Vocabulary Questions:
- Define “skilled migration“. “Finding the right balance is going to be hard, especially as new technologies are constantly changing the skill sets that are demanded by the economy and that’s before considering variables like skilled migration, which can add or subtract skills to the labor market very quickly.” Please create your own sentence using the phrase.
- What does “too much of a good thing” mean? “Are our modern economies becoming overeducated and if they are, what are the consequences of having too much of a good thing?” Use this expression in a sentence.
- What is the meaning of “egalitarian“? “In some highly egalitarian countries, education is paid for by the government.”
Discussion Questions:
- Do you agree that more education isn’t always better? Why or why not?
- What are the consequences of an overeducated population?
- Should we slow down the trend of people becoming more and more overeducated? Share your thoughts on this.
- Do you believe that the “Labor Theory of Value” is a perfect way of measuring value? Explain.
- What is the importance of subjective value?
- Talk about the balance of research and labor in your country.
2 replies on “More Education Is Not Always Better”
1) It depends on the way we think. If we are talking about the impact in terms of value related on money, beneficts or better margins for companies or even for individuals who has to make a big effort in terms of investing money and time, I think it is important to plannify properly according the market needs (current and the future ones according the expectations). Nevertheless if we are talking about the knowledge for being more critical and have more judgement my though is that the education is the solution because it provides a huge diversity of the ideas that will develop the perfect path for building a better society.
2) In terms of value for the economy having overeducated people is better because society can produce products and goods more valuable. Nevertheless, to make this process a success the investment could be so great and maybe people can feel so frustated because they don´t achieve the goals according their expectations
3) Yes and not. According the impact for the economy I think the answer is “yes” because it is necessary to plannify properly in order to look for a balance between efforts and needs and their efforts. But “not” if we are talking of making a society with criteria.
4) I’m not an economist so maybe my criteria it is not very accurate. I agree that it is a good approach to measure the value of goods or services if it is possible to consider in a right way all the parts involved in the development process taking into account the margin needs for making the production process sustainable and even considering the wishnesses of the parts involved.
5) “Something is worth what people are willing to pay for it”. It sounds good if everything is properly measured.
6) In general we can say it is good but there is margin of improvement. Sometimes research is not aligned with the current economy needs and also there in not a good accomplishment between public and private I+D+i.
Great work with your responses yet again!
Here are just a few sentences you can enhance:
Keep up the fantastic job!