Age of Knowledge

We are living in an economic industrial era that social theorists have labeled the “knowledge-based” society. It is a period in which the majority of society’s workforce no longer depends on sweat equity to make a living as in the agricultural age or the mindless, unskilled monotony so prevalent in the industrial age. Today’s farmer must have a deep understanding of meteorological patterns, conservation, and environmental principles as well as keep abreast of the latest technologies in order to stay competitive in what has become a capital-intensive corporate business environment. The same holds true for the modern factory worker. No longer is the modern mass-production industrial environment tolerant of unskilled, uneducated labor. These jobs now require keen analytic skills, a grasp of higher math, and an understanding of computer technology and industrial machinery, with many workers specializing in narrow fields of knowledge. But it is not just the farmer and factory worker whose jobs have been transformed into arenas of advanced knowledge qualified by formal education. Accountants, medical laboratory technicians, car mechanics, dermatologists, and computer software engineers all require some level of investment in advanced knowledge-based learning to perform their jobs.