College of Education and the Liberal Arts

School of Arts & Letters

A degree in Arts & Letters provides you with essential skills required in the workforce today. Oral and written communication, critical thinking, and creative problem-solving are highly valuable assets in both our personal and professional lives.

Coursework in the humanities allows you to engage with the creative and scholarly works of human expression. With courses in a wide variety of areas such as film and comics studies, Native studies, creative writing, ethics, acting, play analysis, and communication theory, you will be exposed to a diversity of viewpoints and ideas that will enrich your life as a human individual and help you develop your own viewpoint and understanding of the world.

In all, a humanities degree is a powerful source of knowledge, communication skills, and reasoning and thinking capabilities. The skills learned here hold value in a variety of different careers and real-world situations, empowering you with a flexibility to adapt yourself to whatever challenges and occupations you might encounter.

Skills and Competencies Gained in Arts & Letters

• Oral and written communication
• Critical Thinking
• Creative Thinking
• Ethical Reasoning
• Global Learning
• Inquiry and Analysis

Employment for Arts & Letters

Any discussion of future job prospects must consider recent research regarding the changing nature of employment in the twenty-first century.

Some key findings:

• Average number of times a person changes jobs during their life: 12.3 (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
• “nearly 50% of subject knowledge acquired during the first year of a four-year technical degree is outdated by the time students graduate” (World Economic Forum)
• “highest expected level of skills stability over the 2015–2020 period is found in the Media, Entertainment and Information sector” (World Economic Forum)
• “Social skills—such as persuasion, emotional intelligence and teaching others—will be in higher demand across industries than narrow technical skills” (World Economic Forum)
• Top skills desired by employers: oral/written communication, critical thinking, collaboration, ethical judgment, independent work ethic (National Association of Colleges and Employers, Association of American Colleges and Universities)

An Arts & Letters degree is a smart choice in view of attaining those essential skills that prove to be stable and consistent across many different careers and throughout the long run. A humanities degree does not automatically confine you into a specific occupation, affording you a greater degree of freedom and flexibility in finding a career and a life that you wish to pursue.

Further Reading

The 10 most in-demand soft skills to master if you want a raise, promotion or new job in 2020

In the Salary Race, Engineers Sprint but English Majors Endure