LIFELONG EDUCATION, INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL AND SOURCE OF CROATIA’S COMPETITIVENESS

In today’s information society knowledge has become the chief instigator of entrepreneurship and the main resource of success. Thus the key challenges include defining, managing, measuring, improving and evaluating knowledge, i.e. intellectual capital. It represents a dynamic human process, which needs to be continuously improved by acquiring new technologies as well as gaining new experience and knowledge. Lifelong education and training of employees is the most efficient method of achieving competitive advantage and surviving in the market. Formal education is not sufficient nowadays; it represents the basis to which educational activities are added throughout one’s life and career. Investment in lifelong education is the most important investment in development and future as increasing uncertainty and failure to adapt to change will stop further development and lead to stagnation and decline. The paper discusses the aspects of intellectual capital that are crucial to the development of the economy and entrepreneurship as well as a knowledge-based society. It focuses on the activities undertaken in the business sector and by governmental institutions in Croatia