These Are Not Soft Skills: the Case for STEAM vs. STEM

When I graduated from university, I so clearly remember hearing the question:

"But, what are they going to do with their liberal arts degrees?"

From English to Political Science majors, if you weren't in a practical degree, everyone felt entitled to question your choice. Luckily for me, I studied Business.

To those asking, it seemed that if you hadn't enrolled yourself in a practical or technical degree, you were slamming the door on employment. You'd signed yourself up for a career slinging coffee at the local cafe and nothing more.

The truth was that this wasn't a new question. The eternal refrain "what are you going to do with that degree" has consistently fallen on the ears of students studying in fields that aren't direct paths to a job.

Things aren't much different today. Students seek out degrees that will help them pay back their substantial student debt. Moreover, the rise of technology startups and the lack of developers has propelled the need for technical positions to an all-time high. Will the arts ever recover?

STEM As Subject Centric

Enter STEM, a movement that has been embraced broadly by education systems and governments alike as an answer to this very problem.

Predominantly curriculum-based, STEM educates students in four specific disciplines—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—in an interdisciplinary and applied approach.

STEM has been a common term since the early 2000s when studies in the US showed students falling behind in future-focused subject matters compared to other countries.

The evangelization of STEM centered around the program and preparing students for the job market. But its subject-centric approach often lacks the real-world application students need once they land their first jobs.

STEAM as People/Project Centric

"Rather than focus on rote memorization or mastery of separate topics, STEAM uses project-based teaching to holistically foster students’ skills in creativity, design thinking, tech literacy, collaboration, and problem-solving. This sets students up for success in STEM, especially for those who might not seem to be naturally gifted in technical areas." – Anna Feldman

Right on the heels of STEM came STEAM. Steam "investigates the same concepts as STEM education but does so through a lens of inquiry and problem-based learning methods that are found in the creative processes". In other words, it highlighted the importance of critical thinking and problem-solving—and of course, the importance of interpersonal communications in and around those scenarios.

While STEM does integrate subject fields into a cohesive learning paradigm, it's the ''A'' in STEAM that acts as the glue in its real-world application. STEAM's people and project-centric focus prepares students for the problems that arise when challenging projects collide with complicated personalities. 

By integrating specific subject matter and approaches in a curriculum, the focus of STEAM becomes the individual and their intellectual development, not just their performance in a particular subject. It may seem surprising, but a liberal arts degree fosters skills that are crucial in career progression, whether that's a career in the arts, sciences, or both.

The A in STEAM is More Important Than We Think

"...the point is that it is only through engaging in the thinking processes practiced in these areas that one can be exposed to various ways of thinking, analyzing, and questioning. The experiences gained from studying in different fields may be qualitatively different, but they are all vital pieces of the Tao of the liberal arts, and are all equally important." – Valerie Strauss

A Liberal Arts education isn't just about dabbling with Plato, learning some light history or political science theories. It's a degree defined by the rigorous development of skills that grease the wheels of collaboration and teamwork to come. 

Some refer to these as 'soft skills,' yet they are crucial in the day-to-day of a modern workplace. Don't believe me? Here is a general list of the skills that students develop through this type of education:

• Research and information retrieval
• Analytical thinking
• Creative thinking
• Writing
• Speaking
• Foreign languages and cross-cultural knowledge
• Numeracy
• Effective with ambiguity
• Learning and synthesizing new ideas
• Ethics

By teaching students to be more project-centric in how they format their thinking and approach, the above skills become critical in growing a future-ready workforce. Put another way, the A in STEAM helps develop an individual's ability to be critical, understand nuances and then communicate these ideas through writing and speaking. In other situations, its to come up with creative solutions to problems as they arise—and the list goes on... priming students to understand the importance of asking 'what if' when it comes to solving real-life problems.

Soft skills in the Workplace

"...the ability to communicate and get along with people, and understand 'what's on other people's minds, and do full-strength critical thinking – all of these things were valued and appreciated by everyone as important job skills, except the media.” – George Anders

Often I wonder what's the use of being technically smart if you can't communicate any of it? 

Developing excellent communication skills enables people to interact effectively and harmoniously with one another. From remote teams to large departments (as well as freelancers and consultants), our modern work environments require us to be better at these skills.  

Teamwork and Communication

Besides, beyond having a technically savvy and skilled team, employees that are well versed and adept with soft skills diversify a team and enrich a company's talent pool. Put another way, hiring individuals with these skills create teams that can learn from each other, and push creative solutions to work-related problems. 

Whether it's meetings, emails, companies off-sites, or internal chat tools, communication is an essential requirement of every aspect of a modern work environment, and not a skill that anyone should fall short on.

But beyond communicating, young professionals need to showcase their ideas to stand out and illustrate their mastery of the work. In fact, learning to highlight their merit could be the difference between getting a promotion, or not. 

Creativity

“STEAM says we can be better engineers by learning how to think artistically, and we can re-engage artists with science by letting them see how STEM can work in the arts. 'It's infinitely more exciting, especially in an increasingly interdisciplinary and digital world." – Anna Feldman

Tackling and solving issues by thinking outside the box is pivotal in today's business environment and this is reflected in the hiring trends of many tech companies. When George Anders (author of You Can Do Anything) spoke to tech companies, he discovered a different reality. Companies were hiring beyond the technical sphere: 

"Uber was picking up psychology majors to deal with unhappy riders and drivers. Opentable was hiring English majors to bring data to restaurateurs to get them excited about what data could do for their restaurants".

Future-ready employees require multiple areas of expertise to succeed. A STEAM education prepares students to ask the right questions in the face of ambiguity and adapt to challenges. This is what makes it so valuable.

The Future is STEAMY

“Any degree will give you very important generic skills like being able to write, being able to present an argument, research, problem-solve, teamwork, becoming familiar with technology. But few courses of study are quite as heavy on reading, writing, speaking and critical thinking as the liberal arts, in particular, the humanities – whether that’s by debating other students in a seminar, writing a thesis paper or poetry.” – Anne Mangan

In today's world, we assume that soft skills are personal attributes acquired through life experiences. The truth is that these skills are professional requirements, and should be cultivated alongside the pursuit of STEAM education. With STEAM, we can challenge preconceptions that these areas are separate when the reality of the workplace shows us they are not. 

It is time we placed a higher degree of value on the “A” in everything we do. This goes beyond just modifying our perspective, it requires focusing on candidates with varied backgrounds and career trajectories. Doing so, will make room for individuals with different skill sets that compliment, and maybe even challenge our company cultures for the better. 

In appreciating varied educational background as assets, we should look beyond the typical standards and begin considering how we should evaluate candidates. From reviewing applications to how we run interviews, changes like these can lead the way to creating a more diversified hiring pool. 

But it doesn’t stop there. If internally we show these skills are valued, then perhaps technical hires would feel empowered to improve on them. Can we celebrate technical hires not only for their technical proficiency but for the development of their soft skills?

I acknowledge that being in the content business gives Quietly a particular focus on the “A”,  but I’d love to know your thoughts. What ideas do you have to make more room for the arts in the workplace? How can we avoid over-indexing on STEM?