Making Your Liberal Arts Graduate Employable
Have a son or daughter studying Freud, Plato, Shakespeare or Lincoln?
Worried about their ability to get a job when they graduate?
If so, you're not alone. The Great Recession was especially hard on liberal arts and humanities graduates whose rates of unemployment and under-employment were much higher than graduates with business or engineering degrees, among others. Indeed, parental fears over their children's majors in college has fueled an explosion in interest in undergraduate business programs.
But let's face it: Students are far more likely to study what interests them rather than what best prepares them for a career. If your son or daughter insists on majoring in one of those fields that doesn't quite set them up for a job, there's a new program just launched by the Harvard Business School that could very well make liberal arts grads more immediately employable by business.
The new HBS offering--called CORe for Credential of Readiness--is the first online programming from the best business school brand in the world. It consists of three courses on business fundamentals: Business Analytics, Economics for Managers, and Financial Accounting, all taught by Harvard Business School's full-time, tenured and endowed professors. The goal: To teach people more familiar with King Lear and The Republic the language of business, from the elasticity of demand to inventory control.
The inaugural cost of the two-month-long program is only $1,500. Because it requires between seven and ten hours a week of study, it can be taken while your son or daughter is a junior or senior in college. The program also is open to recent graduates with liberal arts degrees.
Consider the value of a Harvard Business School credential on one's resume with that degree in philosophy or English. This isn't one of those easy-to-get courses or programs from a for-profit school no one has ever heard of. This is the pre-MBA best of what Harvard Business School can offer for liberal arts and humanities students and grads. There will be a selection process largely based on undergraduate grades (Harvard only wants serious learners, after all) and the completion of an essay written to an undisclosed prompt. The successful completion of the program ends with the granting of a certificate. The school will maintain a transcript of all students' grades that can be forwarded to employers and graduate schools.
HBS will make available an online application for the program in early-to-mid April for the first program's start this June. While the school is limiting the beta version of CORe to students living in Massachusetts, HBS is expected to ramp up very quickly, offering the program nationwide this fall--and internationally shortly after that. Though the price is likely to rise, Harvard wants to make this highly accessible so the increase shouldn't amount to all that much--especially considering the expected lift the program will provide to all those budding Shakespearean scholars.
To find out more about the new online program and why Harvard is entering this market, see PoetsandQuants.com:
Harvard Business School Goes Online
Author at Shaw's Reality
10 年First, I have nothing against The Harvard Business School or any business school for that matter; however I don't believe liberal arts students need to run out and get a business certification. I have worked with businesses and and corporations often and I learn what I need to know to effectively communicate what I am asked to communicate. Sometimes I use an SME to provide the technical answers when I cannot. What I can do is read my audience and communicate. Second, there is nothing wrong with pursuing a life in the arts if you have the patience, talent and don't mind doing other things (often mundane work in the business) while between "art" jobs. I've done both. But my needs for security led me away from the arts as a career. As a speech coach and trainer, I have found it best to have an SME present at various speaking or training situations, but not because I lack the subject matter expertise. Often, working for the government, SMEs are asked to speak to an audience, and they are not up to the task. I think it is important for a communicator to absorb as much as possible about the world around them and business school suits them--fine. As I've been doing work with corporate leaders, I have an appreciation for business, but I don't necessarily need a certificate to do my job. Some people list all these certificates and specific training to make them more marketable, rather than to actually help them do the job. Good work travels fast and word-of-mouth often the best promoter. Maybe that's just me. Primary for communicators is to make sure the audience receives the appropriate amount of information rather than the expert treatment. I don't have to be a technical expert, but know how to ask intelligent questions and pose questions for the SME. My specialty is communication--written and oral. There is something besides business for liberal arts majors, and it isn't always business, despite the fact it probably pays better. I chose the military and federal government. They're open to all degrees.
Researcher in Early American history; University/Upper School Tutor; Education Consultant in History/Political Science
10 年Thanks for posting, Ali. I read with interest. A good liberal arts and sciences education--certainly including philosophy--should train a person to read critically, write effectively, and to think constructively, including "out of the box." All of these ought to be more, not less important in today's job market, where training for any narrowly-focused (including "tech") job will be obsolete five years from now. Training for life is the key--learning how to learn, and re-learn. Most important, even after more than two thousand years, an education should teach one how to live a good and meaningful life. For people who want to really live rather than just exist, the liberal arts and philosophy will always be a first class ticket to a life worth living.
Author/Actor/Teacher/learner/playwright/poet/Souleducator
10 年Thinking of you, worthy educator, BW! While learning what all gifts are like Best aiming high or just on a hike To broaden the view? Far better we do Not read the book but ride the bike! Cx