*rolls eyes*
You may well be a 'just the messenger', Brendan, I don't know, but I don't think that's it, you're probably too clever for that. But the quote you provided in the first post takes the article out of context. The article is not about 'arts students to have difficulty finding jobs', rather, it's another scare piece on the economic downturn and about how young people in general will find things more hard than the previous generation. The mention of people who do 'generalist degrees' just explores where the 'crisis' might hit. Note: Not all generalist degrees are also Arts degrees. So, in merely naming the topic as you do, you're providing us a reinterpretation of the entire article either explicitly or inadvertently. Perhaps you're trying to provoke some kind of response in people who are Arts students or are sympathetic to Arts students. Well done if you are, because look at how I'm responding.
Also, it's interesting to note that you don't post any 'pro-Arts' pieces, despite there being lots out there. Melbourne University's propaganda on why generalist degrees are a really good idea being one such case. Probably more importantly, the fact that last year Arts at UoM was the most popular course to do and required an ENTER of over 85, showed that not just people see the benefits of an Arts degree, but high performing students who are presumably quite smart see the benefits of doing an Arts degree.
Furthermore, a big 'duh', to the idea that degrees which are career specific or are in skill shortage areas will lead to a higher likelihood of employment than degrees which are not. But, it's important to understand that there are other outcomes in doing a degree than those that are employment specific. I remember one of the first speeches given to me and my Artsy cohort was in terms of career outcomes, 'it doesn't matter'. We were assured that we would get a job in the end, but more importantly, we were assured a good education. But, if you measure success in life in terms of employment, then you should not be disappointed with the outcomes one is provided by Arts. Arts students can expect jobs if they are good at what they do and if they can demonstrate the passion for what they do. If they can't, then they shouldn't have done Arts in the first place. In any case, just having a university degree can get you to a lot of places.
Often people pull out the figures in saying that Arts students have a lower employment rate than those of other degrees. This is probably quite true. However, many people also ignore the fact that 'Arts is the degree you do when you don't know what degree to do.' As a result, some graduates still aren't sure what to do, and are less motivated than other graduates. If you aren't a motivated person, it's much easier to do a career specific degree because the career path is easy and obvious. Those doing an Arts degree who want a job have to be reflective in regard to what they'd like to do with their lives and must be motivated. I would say that Arts might actually be the worst degree to do if you don't know what to do.
Home
Help
Search
Login
