STEM skills are needed, but don’t neglect the value of arts degrees to technology companies | City A.M.
Amid concerns of skills shortages in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), the UK government is doubling down its focus on STEM curriculum in schools and higher education, going as far as excluding arts and creative subjects from the English Baccalaureate.
This is a mistake for our future workforce, because it denies students the opportunity to develop their self-expression, imagination, and creativity. Without fostering these abilities, how can we continue to innovate and move forward?
The arts teach us to challenge, persuade, and argue. They give us our language through which we convey our emotions and thoughts. While STEM skills are necessary, the arts reinforce human-centred thinking that empowers businesses to sympathise with their customers in order to drive growth.
Read more: Finding the root of our STEM gender gap
Today’s technologies are incredibly intuitive. Whole business processes can be built without writing code, and with machine learning iterating improvements, the human role in system building is becoming less essential. Instead, the imperative skills are those that help us to collaborate effectively.
Envisioning the product and its use requires real world experience, understanding the client, and being able to think creatively – but the stereotypical technologist often struggles to understand customer issues.
At one point early in my company’s growth, we were close to losing a client because the product we built did not meet their vision.
But my friend, who had dropped out part way through his philosophy degree at the University of Pennsylvania, spoke to the client at length and helped them develop a new perspective on the problems – completely changing what we were originally building.
This arts mindset played a crucial role in helping us envision the wider picture beyond the technical details.
After that experience, I asked myself: what can we learn from this? We made changes in the way we recruited and trained workers. We still hired computer scientists and technical specialists, but also made sure to employ artists, musicians, and writers alongside them.
This strategy has transformed the way our company operates – sparking innovation through a diversity of skill and thought.
It is a common belief that STEM degrees provide greater opportunities than arts degrees, yet if you examine companies where many people think a STEM background would be critical, you’ll find this isn’t necessarily the case. At Google and Facebook, 65 per cent of open job opportunities are non-technical. Alongside every technician, engineer, and scientist, there are marketers, designers, lawyers, salespeople, and HR managers. Each is an important part of the company’s ecosystem, each contributing to the business in different ways.
This isn’t to say that people shouldn’t pursue STEM. There is a STEM skill shortage, which – coupled with the lack of diversity in the STEM sphere – means we should continue to grow a more diverse and skilled workforce. But we need to dispel the notion that a STEM degree is better than an arts degree. In fact, we really should encourage young people to pursue whatever path they are passionate about.
If there’s one thing that our future workforce needs, it’s diversity. That diversity shouldn’t end with gender, sexuality, or race. We need a diversity of backgrounds and skills, with introverts, extroverts, leaders, and followers.
With technology becoming more accessible, it leaves greater opportunity for the future workforce to study whatever they want, and still build value for their organisation.
Read more: DEBATE: Are we over-focusing on STEM at the expense of creative skills?