KE Index

I trust by now that most readers of this column have read the summary of our Knowledge economy index baseline report. It was prepared on the basis of publicly available data by Oxford Economics, sponsored and supported by the Northern Bank. It used the tightly specified metrics developed by CONNECT in San Diego for marking their own progress from cold-war economy to leadership of the knowledge economy for the USA. If you haven’t yet read the piece, let me exhort you to consider the four page summary at least, which you can download from The NI Knowledge Economy Index. We’ll be holding public events to discuss it and hopefully to agree collective short-, medium- and long-term targets, against which we can plot our progress into our future.

We did this work to define Knowledge Economy, to show that it is very possible in our situation and that it is not for “egg-heads” only. My only regret is that I failed to persuade others to do this baseline ten or at least five years ago. I allowed objections like “patents don’t really count for a lot” or “this isn’t really for a wee place like Norn Irlan” to win the day. Because of that, we can’t prove just how far we have come but I think many will know, if they think about it for a minute, that our report describes a very different Northern Ireland from ten years ago. Granted you have to allow that it’s an indicator only. In a painting metaphor, it’s not a Canaletto, more like my favourite, a Turner.

Let me give you some personal indicators included within the body of the data.

When I came home to create the Science Park, CBI economic affairs meetings were concerned mainly about the unit price of electricity and the state of the roads, classical topics for the CBI. Today we debate knowledge and skills.

A salary survey showed that in Northern Ireland’s private sector, there was on average no premium for a degree.  The KEI showed that in those segments of the private sector even here, the premium is now 50%, close to the national average.

Ten years ago, there were only a few experienced lawyers in intellectual property (IP) but few deals were done. Today in firms like Warner Chilcott, Almac, CSR/APTX and others, IP strategies and tactics of international quality are being devised and enacted. In support, we must have over a score of IP lawyers, who are not cheap to keep and who therefore must be gainfully employed.

Highly qualified people show as very, very likely to be in a job, whereas unqualified have a high chance of not being in work. Here then is our great challenge, for everything in a knowledge world needs education and evidence of having been through it successfully.

The other day a huge ship docked opposite the Science Park, North Sea Giant. She is a massive vessel only one year old with three Voith-Schneider propellers, more like underwater helicopter rotors, really. These keep her perfectly on station in everything but the most severe North Sea storms while she lays the fibre optic of the internet, the natural gas pipes to keep us connected to the North Sea gas fields or places into position the ever larger wind turbines keeping our houses lit.

I suspect there is no-one on board without a tertiary level qualification but some will also be very tough indeed. Truly the knowledge economy is for everyone!