The Workforce Relevance of Liberal Arts Education

Liberal arts colleges and universities are currently facing substantial challenges. Small colleges are closing at unprecedented rates. Undergraduate and graduate school enrollment dropped by 2.5% from fall 2019 to fall 2021 (NPR, December 17, 2020). For many colleges, COVID-19 added severe disruption when they were already struggling with decreasing enrollment trends. Prospective students may now struggle to see liberal arts colleges—often viewed as steeped in tradition rather than in technology—as a worthy investment to help prepare them for careers upon graduation.

While technical skills are critical for many careers, employers are increasing their focus on human skills. These human skills, such as critical thinking, creativity, communication, collaboration, initiative, integrity, and comfort with ambiguity, complement technical skills and cannot be directly replicated by today’s technology. Monster’s The Future of Work 2021: Global Hiring Outlook reported that when employers were asked to name the top skills they want in employees, they cited soft skills such as dependability, teamwork/collaboration, flexibility and problem-solving. According to LinkedIn’s 2019 Global Talent Trends report, 89 percent of recruiters say when a hire doesn’t work out, it usually comes down to a lack of soft skills. (SHRM – May 28, 2021)

Liberal arts institutions place strong emphasis on building these critical human skills. Their curricula encourage students to develop creative and interdisciplinary thinking to tackle significant challenges. The goal of liberal arts education is not simply to advance learning for its own sake, in a vacuum, but in a larger community and global context. In an opinion piece in The New Republic, Lewis & Clark President Wim Wiewel says, “We must change the all too prevalent but false narrative that academics value theory over practice, that ivy covered walls separate us from real-world problems.” 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.This paper presents perspectives and case studies from the participating liberal arts institutions around four key areas:

1. advising: providing holistic advice to help students develop and articulate career-relevant skills;
2. curriculum: redesigning curriculum and linking learning experiences to career skills;
3. credential models: supporting a broader segment of learners with new types of credentials; and
4. collaborations among industry, alumni, and organizations.

The paper concludes by looking to the future and the ways that institutions, foundations, and others might make progress in these areas.