INTRODUCTION OF INFORMATION TECHONOLGY

The information society challenges the education system. In recent years, the speedy, effective and global communication of knowledge has created a new foundation for co-operation and teamwork, both nationally and internationally. The increasing role played by information technology in the development of society calls for an active reaction to the challenges of the information society.

Already, new and greater demands are being made as to the core qualifications of individuals, as well as to their understanding and knowledge of the consequences of the introduction of information technology for the work and organization of a company. Companies are no longer forced to gather all their functions in one place. The knowledge-intensive functions such as development and marketing can be sited in countries where the labour market can supply highly educated employees, whilst production itself can be moved to low wage countries. The result is the efficient handling, processing, co-ordination and administration of company resources, which is decisive for the competitiveness of the company. In a society which is becoming increasingly dependent on information and the processing of knowledge, great demands are therefore made that the individual should have a solid and broad educational foundation on which to build. Educational policy in the information society must ensure that:

1. IT qualifications are developed by means of their integration in all activities in the education sector and
2. The individual citizen must have an active and critical attitude to developments and not passively allow technological development to set the pace.

IT educational policy must ensure:

• Up-to-date qualifications in the information society
• Up-to-date qualifications gained against the background of a high general level of education in the population will be decisive if Denmark is to maintain competitiveness and its share of the global labour market in the information society. IT skills and IT understanding are thus central prerequisites for the individual, both now and especially in the future.

The advantage of using information technology is that time-consuming work routines can increasingly be performed by means of this technology and time can thus be devoted instead to communicating and informing, to the processing of information and the production of knowledge.