Education is the key to our economic wellbeing, both individually and collectively. Individually, higher levels of education will lead, at least in theory, to a better quality of employment. Collectively, the future of the knowledge economy is predicated on our ability to have the knowledge to sustain it. But it's no longer enough for Ireland to have a good level of third level participation – we also need to have a good level of fourth level participation.

Ireland actually has a very high level of third level participation, as compared with the rest of Europe, with around 43% of 25 to 34 year olds having completed their higher learning in Ireland. The figure in Europe for the same age group hovers around the 30% mark.

But while these participation levels may form a good foundation for a good service economy, a knowledge economy will require more by way of postgraduates to fill the higher end, value-added roles that come with the territory. At least we are on course – we have practically fulfilled the Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation's call to double our output of PhDs, and we should be producing 1,300 new graduates at Doctorate level every year by 2012.

Not that recent graduates are necessarily going to care all that much about their contribution to the overall economy. The boom years created a certain selfish scramble to amass wealth; the recession has reaffirmed Darwin's theories regarding the survival of the fittest. In both cases, there were and are selfish motives for a person's bid to be successful, whether in business or academia. But if the by-product of such self-interest is a collective raising of the economy's game, then maybe Gordon Gekko was right after all.

This is not necessarily to say that every student enters a postgraduate programme with a definite plan for economic betterment. There are many who will be pursuing knowledge for its own ends, or to further their academic career or standing. According to Westley Forsythe, 4th Level Ireland Network Co-ordinator with the Irish Universities Association (IUA), the primary motivation for undertaking a PhD should be "a deep and committed interest in the area you will be researching"; and if you are going into the programme thinking purely in term of your career, then you may find yourself without sufficient motivation or commitment to complete the course.

Still, a quick scan of IDA Ireland's recent successes in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) points squarely to the fact that the future of inward investment is R&D-shaped. And this means that a significant percentage – possibly even the majority - of new multinational jobs will be in the research arena. These jobs of today and jobs of the future cannot be staffed by anyone except those who have achieved a postgraduate qualification, and in most cases a relevant one – although it is not absolutely necessary for your qualification to be specifically relevant to participate in the knowledge economy.

"Universities are moving towards what are known as "structured" PhDs," explained Forsythe. "These are the same as they always were, except that they have support structures which not only support the completion of the programme, they also engender an enhancement of generic skills. And this will help the graduates to recognise where their skills and attributes can be best applied."

Thus, because of the rounded nature of most fourth-level education, good qualification will generally find themselves in good jobs across a variety of areas. Of course, the value of fourth level achievement took a turn for the surreal earlier this week when it emerged that, of the almost 1,000 applications for posts in a new cinema in Wexford, no fewer than two were from people who held PhDs. The subject of those PhDs was not released, but what relevance any doctorate would have to the subtle art of popping corn and tearing tickets in two remains nebulous at best. Still, this is more of an indictment of the parlous state of the economy as it is of the value of fourth level qualifications in Ireland.