The Role and Importance of Knowledge Economy as a Platform for Formation of Industry 4.0

Purpose: The purpose of the chapter is to substantiate the “knowledge economy” as the basis for the formation and development of Industry 4.0, which is characterized by the solution of the tasks of increasing competitiveness through the strengthened integration of “cyber physical systems”. Methodology: The methodological basis for the study of the role of education in the development of Industry 4.0 is the fundamental monographic work devoted to the theoretical and practical aspects of the transition to a new type of society development. The authors studied the basic elements of the knowledge economy: the institutional structure; an innovative system; education and training; information infrastructure. Particular attention is paid to education. Result: The authors reasoned that under the conditions of the transition from the “knowledge economy” to Industry 4.0, the content of the concept “human capital” is transformed. The result of the research was the differentiation of human capital into three types: “traditional”, “convertible” and “creative.” The latter is characterized by knowledge and skills in the advanced fields; the permanence of continuing education and knowledge updating; the ability to set tasks independently; ability to switch to various activities; high professional autonomy. It is the creative human capital that plays the role of the accelerator in the process of becoming and spreading Industry 4.0. In the process of analyzing the peculiarities of the “knowledge economy” development, their natural evolution has been revealed, which, if replaced, on the basis of the principle of continuity, will lead to the establishment of industry 4.0. There are no clear boundaries between the selected stages, but the employment structure of the population can serve as one of the criteria for determining the transition to Industry 4.0. It is concluded that the Russian education system’s desire to implement the tasks to ensure the transition to Industry 4.0 was reflected in the emergence of a new integrated function in higher education—the innovative-intellectual one, and the higher school itself is justified as a component of an economic system that has the potential to provide a multiplicative knowledge increment due to the presence of specific features. Conclusions: The characteristic feature of Industry 4.0 is the determining role of the effectiveness of information exchange organization. If for the “knowledge economy” the structure of the technological mode of production can be schematically represented as “information + knowledge + innovation”, in Industry 4.0 it is—“human intelligence + new information technologies + information + innovations”. The knowledge economy is a type of economy characterized by the duration and formation staging, the distinguishing feature of which is the predominant role of metamorphosis: “information–knowledge–innovative knowledge,” where the creativity of an individual and the formation of human capital are the qualitative basis of the good. Proceeding from the fact that the development of Industry 4.0 is characterized by the use of high-tech electronics and equipment, the widespread introduction of Internet technologies, the actual task is the adaptation of the education system to the requirements of the stage of society development. Under the circumstances, only accumulated knowledge will contribute to the development of Industry 4.0. and its safe development.