Brain Drain, Education and Economic Development

Most economic developers have been chanting the "jobs mantra" for many years. "Jobs, jobs, we need jobs!" Jobs are very important because they provide an avenue to income, and hopefully prosperity, for individuals and their families. Current economic conditions have us sweating bullets about slow job growth. Dipping per capita personal income levels have us even more concerned.

Everybody everywhere is concerned about BD--Brain Drain, which is a very real problem. The Cleveland Plain Dealer has been researching the problem. We have been writing about it here at ED Futures. Write this down. "Smart people can be so quick on their feet because they are quick thinking." There is something more important than brain drain--that is "education." Not one-time education, but the capacity for lifelong learning. We might worry less about brain drain if we did a better job of educating everyone in the community. Education, especially lifelong learning, is everybody's job, not just teachers and professors.

Economic developers should learn a new chant: the "education mantra." "Learning, thinking, we need education!" Yes, I know many EDO's have been doing some great work in this area. Thank you and more power to you. All of us know that there is still much work to be done in this area.

What does education do for us? It provides us with the capacity to think. Employers need "thinking" employees, maybe even more than they need "trained" employees. Some HR managers will disagree with me of this issue. Truthfully, it is not an either/or issue. We need both.

Education does not happen overnight. It's not a quick fix where we simply "download" the latest information file. The Internet has conditioned us to "think" this way. Education is the ability to think and learn about a wide range of issues. It's the ability to use the Internet as a powerful tool to accomplish lifelong learning.

Places facing brain drain problems need to literally "think" their way out of these problems. I will make a prediction. People, jobs and businesses in the future will be attracted to "high-quality thinking and learning places." Some places are better at this than others. The better places will attract the next generation knowledge businesses and jobs.

Think about it.