While technical skills are critical for many careers, employers are increasing their focus on human skills (i.e. critical thinking, creativity, communication, collaboration, initiative, integrity, and comfort with ambiguity) which cannot be directly replicated by today’s technology. Liberal arts institutions place strong emphasis on building these critical skills with curricula that encourages students to develop creative and interdisciplinary thinking to tackle significant challenges. For many institutions, bridging the education/workforce gap—whether real or perceived—will require extensive transformation.
To understand the workforce relevance of liberal arts education, MIT J-WEL and Pragya Systems assembled a group of senior campus leaders for a series of roundtable discussions. Participants discussed the importance of learners having the right combination of technical and human skills, as well as access to personalized, data-driven, and holistic career, academic, and co-curricular advice.
The Workforce Relevance of Liberal Arts Education white paper presents perspectives and case studies from the participating liberal arts institutions around four key areas:
- advising: providing holistic advice to help students develop and articulate career-relevant skills;
- curriculum: redesigning curriculum and linking learning experiences to career skills;
- credential models: supporting a broader segment of learners with new types of credentials; and
- collaborations among industry, alumni, and organizations.
