Industries champion Arts degrees
In response to criticism of the employability of Arts graduates in recent times, industry leaders have championed the benefits they bring to the UK.
According to Design Week, Arts graduates came under criticism this week after bosses at the likes of BP, Shell and Siemens alluded that young people may be wise to steer away from Arts degrees for the sake of their employability when they graduate. Design Week gathered some of the leading figures from Arts universities and the creative industries to debunk this myth.
First for rallying to the defence of Arts graduates was the Vice Chancellor at the University of Arts London, Nigel Carrington. He pointed out the boom the arts industries were experiencing. Carrington said 'The latest figures from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport show the UK's creative industries are growing at three times the rate of the wider UK economy and that they accounted for 1.71 million jobs, or 5.6 per cent of total UK jobs in 2013. Our creative industries are thriving and that is because of arts graduates.'
Carrington added 'However, the suggestion that arts graduates cannot benefit the UK's more traditional sectors is a fallacy – to focus only on training more engineers and scientists in isolation is to miss the chance of going beyond simply filling job vacancies and instead creating the sort of quantum-leap innovations which advance a whole industry.'
Rector at the Royal College of Art , Dr Paul Thompson, went further to add that although Arts graduates might not be demanding the same salaries as their Science or Engineering counterparts, their opportunities were still encouraging. Dr Thompson said 'A rigorous arts or humanities course at a prestigious university leads to excellent employment prospects across a swathe of industries. Yes, starting salaries may be lower than those of STEM graduates but it is wrong to assume that arts graduates cannot rise to high levels of achievement in the creative industries, public service, or other industries.'
Dr Thompson added that arts graduates were not at fault for the lack of engineers coming through. He told Design Week 'Many employers actually prefer a first degree in a non-vocational subject, followed by a second degree or professional qualification. The dearth of engineering graduates entering the industry is not due to a lack of graduating engineers: it's due to those graduate engineers deciding to pursue careers in sectors other than engineering – often in the City!'
By James Howell
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