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The Liberal Arts and 21st Century Careers
A View from Liberal Arts Colleges
Stanton GreenDean
McMurray School of Humanities and Social SciencesMonmouth UniversityRethinking Success
Wake Forest UniversityApril 2012
MY CASE:THE LIBERAL ARTS ARE ALL ABOUT PREPARING STUDENTS FOR CAREERS.
THE ISSUE IS MAKING THIS CLEAR TO OUR STUDENTS, AND THE PUBLIC – THE CORPORATE WORLD ALREADY KNOWS THIS.
TO DO THIS WE NEED TO MOVE FROM:Typical Perceived Career Path
of a Liberal Arts Major
Why the Recommended Career Path??
Because that is where many if not most of the Jobs and Careers are --
Where Do Liberal Arts Majors Find Jobs?
Well – It really depends on where they look for them -
Case Example:Anthropology Masters Graduates
How do we convince faculty to advise students toward the the opportunistic path?
Have the Faculty readFrank Donoghue’s The Last
Professors
Fear Tactic
Writing in 1842, Francis Wayland, president of Brown University, offered an astonishingly prescient speculation about the future of American higher education.
If the colleges did not provide the training desired by the mercantile and industrial interests, he argued, businesses would set up their own competing schools.
Prediction of McDonalds University
… the university does operate like a business, but more radically, it serves as a comprehensive and uniform credentialing service for all business interests.
Thorstein Veblen 1912
The doorway to a well education
person&
A well prepared career path.
OR
Convince the Academy and the Professoriate that the Liberal arts
can be both
It seems impossible for students not to think of jobs and careers as the price of a college education escalates and they plan for a life of work after graduation.
Faculty in the humanities cannot help
resenting a corporate culture that has permeated universities, often marginalizing their disciplines and managing their work lives
Student vs. Faculty Views
From the late 1980s through the mid–1990s, “when three-fifths of undergraduate degrees…were awarded in professional programs, almost half of new hires continued to be in the arts and sciences fields.
The corporate world seems to understand that the liberal arts are doing the job – it is ironically the academy that seems not to….
Perceptions Aside - Who actually is Being Hired?
ExamplesPNC Bank
Wall Street Journal Article (April 5 2012)Companies say they need flexible thinkers with
innovative ideas and a broad knowledge base derived from exposure to multiple disciplines.
While most recruiters don’t outright avoid business majors, companies in consulting, technology and even finance say they are looking for candidates with a broader academic background
Which Company has been consistently
the largest Employers of College Graduates?
From their Web Page:Regardless of university major or professional
experience, nearly 100% of our employees start out as Management Trainees allowing everyone to learn the business from the ground up. As you progress, you can continue along that managerial track or you can explore other exciting opportunities outside of rental.
Enterprise Rent-A-Car
What Do We need to Do in the ClassroomMove from Content to Context driven learning
(Colleges that Change Lives)
With a focus on explicating the
Skills and Competencies
that students learn in liberal arts classes
Recruiters want graduates who have the requisite skills to be able to perform and to
learn on the job
and therefore have excellent career potential
Employers are not usually interested in what students
majored in –
They want to know What students can do and
&What they have done
That are related to the job for which they are applying
Do Liberal Arts Students Have the Necessary
Skills?
It depends on who you ask.
Faculty Assessment of Student Skills
Faculty and Student Perceptions of Student Skills
Rated as good to extremely good
Reality may Lie Somewhere Between these
Perceptions
Consider the kinds of questions asked by HR offices when screening
candidates for entry level position
And think about these in terms of the kinds of learning objectives we have
for liberal arts curricula
Taken Directly from HR interview screening sheets
When Reading, can youIdentify the main facts and ideas?Identify cause and effect relations?
When Writing, can you Demonstrate concepts in a variety of
settings?When Listening, can you
Distinguish fact from opinion?
Skills Questions
When Speaking, can youConcisely report factual information accuratelyEffectively express your opinion
When working with data, can youConstruct graphs?Interpret graphs?
Can you work effectively as a team member?
Can you work effectively as a team leader?
A few more skills
So How Do We Bring the Liberal Arts and 21st Century Career Preparation Together?
1. Chair: Develop Career Advisement Modules2. Dean: Integrate Career Advisement within curricular
advisement structure3. Dean: Coordinate Academic and Career Services Offices4. Chair: Coordinate Skills, Syllabi and curricula
The School of Humanities and Social
SciencesCareer Advisement Initiative
The Departmental Level:Career Advisement Modules
Examples
Career courses
FAQ’s on careers for all advisors
Department career fairs and networking events
Merge Department Advisement Coordinators
&Career Advisement Coordinators
Restructuring of Advisement
One example: Convince career services that: Liberal Arts Job Fairs should grow to include corporations
Networking events such as those used for Business majors work as well for liberal arts students.
Coordinate Academics with Career Services
At the Course Level
Explicating Skills in Course Syllabi
Assignment Skilla. Short response paper When writing:
demonstrate concepts in a variety of settings
b. Research Paper When Reading: analyze information from
documents/ draw conclusions
Example 1: English Capstone Course
Assignment Skill
– Construct Poster for Symposium Interpret and Communicate data and results
– Conduct survey and analyze data Construct and Interpret charts and Statistics
Example 2: Psychology Thesis Course
Objectives Skills Become familiar with an Work within an
organization: Employment setting understand structure
Example 3: Psychology Field Course
Assignment SkillKeep detailed journal Demonstrate writing in a variety
of settingsExcavate a pit; survey aField Team membership/leadership
Map square or field Construct chart
Maintain inventory of Understand budgeting concepts Equipment and supplies
Identify and analyze artifacts Data analysis and Interpretation
Archaeology Field School
Some tangible outcomes
Good:Chairs started to think about the Career Advisement as part of what
they normally think about as AdvisementSlow:Some Chairs hesitant/resistant to being involved in “job preparation.”
Good:Student Services and Academic Affairs starting to speak the same
language– i.e. translating job search talk into career preparation and how this ties into academic programming
Slow: Recent career fair included no corporations, rather the Marines, the NJ Cops, the Secret Service and a Mental Health Services Agency
Some good, some slow
The provost reassigned the networking/career consultant from the Business school the the School of Humanities and Social Sciences
The Trustees have begun to realize the utility of the liberal arts in terms of their corporate mindset (vast majority from corporate world, a few from medical, legal and other professions).
Culture Change at the University Level
Thank you very much for your attention
Skills Correspond To What the Positions
RequireHow many Dicken’s Novels Do You Have to Read
to Demonstrate that You Can:1. Read Critically2. Effectively Present Your Argument Verbally3. Provide an Effective Written Presentation of
Your Position4. Accurately Depict a Story’s Time Line
What Expectations Are You Expected to Meet?
Liberal Arts in the News
A mother speaks her mind and no one responds!!!
What Governor Scott Believes!!!
Do You Believe Philosophy Majors Can Find Jobs???
A Rhetorical Question
MONMOUTH UNIVERSITY STUDENTS WITH BA, BS WITH DEFINITIVE PLANS FOR
EMPLOYMENT OR POST GRADUATE SCHOOL AT COMMENCEMENT 2011
Monmouth University Masters students reporting full time employment at
Commencement 2011
Masters Degrees in Anthropology
Why Not GPA?
GPA is Important But Most Often as a Threshold Requirement
Do you have a minimum of a 3.0 GPA?
1. Chairs Retreat (the preceding slides)2. Faculty and Student Surveys
What we did to move this agenda
Culture Change: Up and Down
Issues We Have Encountered as We Proceed with the Program
List issues here Amplify on some on following slides
“I’d say Microsoft and Google have a lot in common.
Microsoft never had the Humanities and the Arts in the DNA.
It’s pure technology company. And they just didn’t get it. Even when they saw the Mac they couldn’t even copy it well. How dumb do you have to be to not see it, once you see it? You know? But Google’s the same way. They just don’t get it.” - Steve Jobs
What Steve Jobs had to say -
Thank you very much for your attention
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