The role of education in human capital affecting the process of economic development: The case of Bartin

Economic development is a level that can be achieved by using the total opportunities and values of a country. Development is a multidimensional concept that includes structural changes such as the development of socio-cultural structure in addition to economic growth. The economic development that came to the forefront after the Second World War was one of the important issues that economists focused on. In today's world economy, the formations intended for information society has made the importance of human capital more explicit in economic development. In addition to the classical production factors, the increasing importance of human capital has led to a revision of economic development and growth policies. One of the basic conditions of being successful in transition to information society is to have educated, knowledgeable, skilled and qualified manpower, human capital, who can use technology effectively. The most important factor in the emergence of human capital is education. The aim of this study is to reveal the role of human capital in the economic development process and to evaluate the current situation in Bartın. Source scanning and face-to-face survey were preferred as the study method. Within the scope of the study, the relationship between the educational level and income levels of the participants was examined.The data obtained were transferred to SPSS program and the variables and the relationships between the variables were subjected to statistical tests. As a result of the questionnaire, a statistically significant difference was found between education level and total monthly income according to the findings obtained from the Chi-square test (p <0.05). In addition, it was concluded that the changes in the education and income levels of the participants had a significant impact on the standard of living, personal development and social life, and therefore, education had an important role in human capital.