gu INNOVATION ABSTRACTS ‘2:

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Published by the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development

“BE With support from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and Sid W. Richardson Foundation

 

 

 

THE PRACTICALITY OF THE LIBERAL ARTS MAJOR

Current trends indicate that by the year 2000 the average person will change careers at least twice during
a lifetime. How does the entering college student prepare for career mobility which has never before been
necessary? Our fathers decided what they wanted to do in life, which was very often what their fathers had
done—went to college or apprenticed themselves, and pursued the same career until retirement. Our
mothers assumed one of the nurturing roles in society, if they assumed a role outside of the home at all.
Things have certainly changed. No longer is life so simple.

Adaptability and lifelong learning are now the cornerstones of success. What direction does a person take
to prepare for a lifetime of change? The one degree which provides training which never becomes obsolete
is the liberal arts degree; it teaches you how to think. It also teaches you how to read, write and speak
intelligently, get along with others, and conceptualize problems. For the first time in several decades, the
liberal arts degree is coming to the forefront of the employment field.

Growing ranks of corporate executives are lamenting that college students are specializing too much and
too early. What corporate America really needs, according to chief executive officers of major corporations,
is students soundly grounded in the liberal arts—English, especially—who then can pick up more specific
business or technical skills on the job. Few students, however, seem to be listening to this message.
Today's best selling courses offer evidence that students want to take courses that provide direct job related
skills rather than the most basic survival skills in the workplace: communication and thinking skills. They
want courses they can parlay into jobs—and high paying ones at that. Certainly, we can understand this
mentality when we consider trends indicating that this generation will be the first who will not be able to do
better economically than their parents. They don’t want to leave anything to chance. Historically, the liberal
arts degree was good insurance for a poverty level existence. Students are looking to history to provide
some answers it simply cannot give. They would do well to examine the present.

One of the big problems in the liberal arts community is that we do not market what we have to offer.
Students very often fail to see the practicality of studying Shakespeare as preparation for a career in the
business community. Perhaps some of us have locked ourselves in the ivory tower a little too long extolling
the virtues of a liberal education as preparation for citizenship and life only to the neglect of it as preparation
for career or careers. Education for education’s sake is noble but impractical to today’s college student who
is facing a competitive and rapidly changing job market. They want and deserve to know how their courses
will help them get a job. We as educators owe them some answers; we must be accountable not only for
learning but also for providing information regarding the transferability of classroom skills into the
workplace.

In an attempt to provide answers, we conducted a research project in the Dallas metroplex last year,
assuming the role of the liberal arts graduate seeking employment in the fields of government, banking,
business, and industry. Using informational interviewing as our method of job hunting and obtaining data,
we conducted twenty-five interviews with a diversity of executive officers, ranging from personnel directors
to the chairman of the board of an exclusive department store and the state governor. We wished to
validate, through practical and current research, that not only does the liberal arts degree provide the best
preparation for a lifetime of change, but it also provides a plethora of employment opportunities. We do not
claim our research to be all encompassing, but we do feel its practicality was rewarding. We gathered data
as to how the liberal arts major should present himself on paper and in person, where her best chances for
employment are, and what he can do to augment the liberal arts degree. We were able to draw several
conclusions as to how the liberal arts community could better prepare students for professional mobility.

The liberal arts degree is marketable.

Ninety percent of those interviewed responded they would hire a liberal arts major for an entry level
position which could lead to the executive suite if the position itself were not executive level. The chairman
of the board of a major department store in Dallas responded to the question, "For what position would you

 

 

CP Community College Leadership Program, The University of Texas at Austin, EDB 348, Austin, Texas 78712

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