Staying Top of the Class through Education and Innovation

The future of economic growth doesn’t begin in boardrooms or trade deals. It begins in classrooms, research labs and lecture halls. As universities across the region launch new AI literacy programs and governments scale up digital skills investments, one thing remains clear, and that is that prosperity is built on people and that empowering them to learn, adapt and lead will determine how resilient and innovative our economies can be.

This message came into sharp focus at the QS Higher Education Summit: Asia Pacific 2025 in Seoul, where I underscored the central role universities play not only in preparing young graduates for the workforce but also in shaping the long arc of lifelong learning that modern economies increasingly depend on.

As technological change accelerates and demographic pressures intensify, the work of universities is expanding, not diminishing, and their ability to equip people with the right skills will define how well economies can respond to emerging opportunities.

The Evolution of Education

Education has always been shaped by the realities people face in their daily lives. In earlier generations, learning focused on providing the basic skills needed to participate in community life and local industries. As societies became more interconnected, education expanded to prepare people for faster-paced workplaces and more complex responsibilities.

Today, the forces reshaping our region are different in scale and speed. Technology is changing how people work, communicate and solve problems, often faster than traditional systems can adjust. This shift is turning education into a continuous journey, where people return to universities throughout their lives to refresh their knowledge and build new capabilities for a future that is constantly evolving.

In this environment, the demand for continuous reskilling and upskilling is not a passing trend but a structural necessity. Learning must become a lifelong pursuit, supported by flexible systems that allow individuals to renew and expand their skills throughout their working lives.

Productivity, Technology, and the Need for Reskilling

Across the region, demographic change is reshaping the workforce. By 2050, one in four people in Asia and the Pacific will be over 60 years old. As the number of working-age people declines, productivity will depend increasingly on innovation, reskilling, and new forms of collaboration between humans and technology.

Recognizing this, APEC economies recently endorsed the APEC Joint Statement on Artificial Intelligence which calls for the responsible, human-centered, and inclusive development of AI and technology across the region.

The challenge lies not in resisting technology, but in equipping people to harness it responsibly and effectively. This is where universities play a defining role by preparing graduates and mid-career professionals to work alongside intelligent systems, adapt to evolving tools, and apply human judgment where machines cannot.

This means cultivating not only digital fluency but also creativity, problem-solving, and ethical reasoning—the uniquely human skills technology cannot replace.

Closing Gaps in Quality and Equity

Despite significant advances in digital education, many economies continue to face structural constraints in infrastructure, connectivity, teacher capacity that limit their ability to participate fully in the digital age.

The APEC Study on Digitalization in Education found that although most economies now operate online learning platforms, many educators lack the digital literacy and training required to use these tools effectively. These gaps influence not only learning outcomes but also the ability of economies to participate fully in the digital age.

Artificial intelligence, while offering the potential to personalize learning and improve access, remains unevenly integrated into education systems. Without adequate capacity building, the rapid adoption of AI risks reinforcing, not reducing, existing inequalities.

This is why APEC, through the Human Resources Development Working Group (HRDWG) and the Education Network (EDNET) economies are advancing on five key areas: expanding access to quality learning, strengthening technical and vocational pathways, preparing for demographic shifts, improving the recognition of professional qualifications, and supporting labor markets as they adapt to new technologies.

These are not technologies designed in isolation. Rather, they are responses to help economies achieve sustainable development and ensure that no one is left behind.

Collaboration and Innovation

Closing the quality gap requires more than national action. It demands collaboration. Asia-Pacific’s interdependence is not only economic but also intellectual. Student exchanges, joint research programs, and cross-border university partnerships create the trust and shared knowledge that underpin regional growth.

Yet despite these benefits, collaboration is often limited. Universities operate in isolation from one another and from industry. Incentives for cross-border cooperation are uneven, and mutual recognition of online or hybrid qualifications remains inconsistent.

When collaboration succeeds, the results are transformative. Through APEC’s HRDWG initiatives, economies are aligning education and labor policies, linking universities with industry, and bridging classroom learning with evolving labor market needs to strengthen both innovation and human development.

For the first time, APEC also hosted a High-Level Dialogue on Culture and Creative Industries, recognizing that creativity, from film and music to design and gaming is not just culture, but an engine of growth that already contributes over 3.1 percent of GDP.

As former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reminded us during the Summit, technology must embrace diversity by drawing from local knowledge, cultures, and languages. Innovation is strongest when it reflects the richness of our communities.

Investing in People, Investing in the Future

As APEC economies continue to navigate the complexities of demographic change, technological transformation, and geopolitical uncertainty, let’s not forget that human capital is our greatest asset. Universities, as custodians of knowledge and incubators of innovation, stand at the heart of this endeavor.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution will not wait. The choices we make today about how we educate, whom we empower, and how we cooperate, will determine whether our region continues to prosper in the decades ahead.

Economic growth begins and ends with people. Let us invest in them with the ambition and foresight they deserve.