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The United States, as well as many developed nations, is moving toward Innovation as base work to replace the jobs lost in manufacturing. Manufacturing jobs are being shifted to under-developed nations. For developed nations, this transition is known as moving from the Industrial Age to the Knowledge Age. As a part of the transition, there exists an assumption that knowledge work requires a focus on education and education level as competitive requirements. Indeed, education is a base foundation for human growth. Pursuing the highest level of education should be a goal of every citizen and every leader. Education has many benefits both for the individual and society. However, not many people have the resources, motivation, and ability to focus in a single discipline in order to achieve the higher levels of education. According to US Department of Education 2000 statistics, about 83% of those exiting the secondary education system (dropouts plus graduates) would not achieve a Masters Degree or greater level of education. Should these people be excluded from the new work?

The current trend by businesses is to acquire as many highly educated personnel as possible. Knowledge Age businesses market the education level of their personnel. In doing so, it is not uncommon to find highly educated human resources daily performing tasks that are far below their capabilities. Often they are executing tasks that are not even in their specialized skills. The highly educated are performing tasks that are better suited to personnel with lesser education who can be trained to accomplish these tasks. This business practice de-motivates those who at great personal expense achieved their higher education level. It also excludes lesser educated people from participating in Knowledge Age work.

The net result of the current structure over time may create societies with a few very wealthy and many poor people. The highly educated take the jobs while continual automation reduces job creation needs. Hiring expensive resources results in fewer and fewer projects that can be financially funded. The practice also tends to cause products created under the system to be overly priced as the cost of labor is at its maximum. It is difficult for the products created under this system to ever provide a reasonable Rate of Return on the innovation investment. If a system is used where the lesser educated do much of the work, then many more innovation activities can be simultaneously undertaken with the same investment funds. The investment risk is spread over more projects.

The trend is causing businesses to remove experienced personnel from the work force in order to create the jobs for the highly educated. In the Industrial Age, repetitive task work performed by the lesser educated was often physical work that could only be done by younger workers. In the Knowledge Age few jobs require physical work. Most jobs are mental work that older workers can perform quite well. Experience in task execution is very valuable in the Knowledge Age work force. Older workers tend to have the most experience. So trading experience for degrees is actually reducing the competitiveness of Knowledge Age companies. Is reducing business competitiveness a goal of society? If it is not then this practice needs to be reconsidered.

How can societies utilize both the highly educated and those with lesser levels of education? Should it be the goal of societies to have a two tier, poor and rich with no middle class, economic structure? These are serious questions that need answers. We believe that a better goal is to create a Knowledge Age work force that provides an opportunity for all citizens capable of working. This is the real challenge of businesses in the Knowledge Age.

Perhaps a lesson can be learned from the Industrial Age. In the Industrial Age, industries learned to manufacture very sophisticated products with outstanding quality. Products like aircraft, space equipment, and automobiles are extremely complex and based in technical details. Yet, these products have been largely produced by lesser educated personnel. The highly educated create the systems under which the lesser educated do repetitive tasks. We believe this same approach can be utilized in creative activities. It should not be the sole objective to hire the highly educated to do the bulk of innovation work or manage project activities. Rather, the highly educated should be utilized in creating the new ideas and breaking down the work in to tasks that can be managed by project managers and performed by a trained high school graduate. A system like this will provide a challenge for all workers, provide innovation work for all, and make a strong economy with a solid tax base as more workers are contributing.

Medical Development Services, Inc. strives to direct creative work to the most productive levels. On our innovation projects we have utilized personnel with all education levels. We have been very successful in completing projects in a timely and cost effective manner in compliance with our customers' requirements.