The 21st century competition has proved to become an educational rivalry. International leader and competitive champion will be the nation that will catch the new global trends in contemporary education and adequately modernize its training of personnel system. The article is aimed at demonstrating the newest tendencies in education sphere that have arisen in the latest years. The review of the empirical investigations, statistical data and theoretical concepts can forecast future development of education models under globalization and digitalization. The latest decades have demonstrated radical changes in labor market all over the world. The participation rate of low educated employees has significantly declined. The majority of labor force now have education (bachelor/master degree). The gap in wages between low- and higher-educated workers has also risen. What factors can explain the education premium? The viewpoints of Gary Becker and Michael Spence are nowadays far from adequately explaining the education-related bonus dynamics. In a global digitalized economy the benefits from education lie mostly in public good nature of learning. Value of education is considered to be not only in economic terms (like productivity and income) but also in terms of its major contribution to social, political, religious and cultural life of the society. Education transforms personal tastes, values and preferences towards healthier and more ecologically friendly alternatives. As education, especially higher education, is becoming a kind of a merit good for all, new roles for a teacher have occurred. The educator now is not a monopolistic provider of information. Rather, he is a consultant and a tutor in a system of relationships where students are treated as equal partners in the educational process. Can online education fully substitute class learning? Empirical data does not provide evidence for giving a positive answer. The existence of peer e f fect means that effective education advances can be achieved only under personal (offline) interactions between peer students and teachers. Competitive education nowadays represents a special model of social relationships. It is not just a contact of a student with an object, whether the latter be virtual or real. Basically, it is a dialogue between two parts with equal rights, a teacher and a student, and its inner intensity depends on personal communication face-to-face.
