Help wanted with the liberal arts: employers seek depth and breadth of knowledge. From the article: 

The Association of American Colleges and Universities’ newest report, “How College Contributes to Workforce Success: Employer Views on What Matters Most,” is something of a mixed bag for higher education.

First the good: employers generally have confidence in higher education and value the college degree. They believe that a liberal education — or preparation for more than a specific job — provides knowledge and skills that are important for career success. And increasingly, employers say, college graduates are more effective at explaining what they bring to the table….

Ashely Finley, vice president for research and senior adviser at the AAC&U, and author of the report, said Monday that “the bottom line is that at a time when colleges and universities might be tempted to retrench resources, specifically to limit breadth of learning and skill development, they should not.”

Employers continue to find high value in students developing a “broad skill base that can be applied across a range of contexts,” Finley said. “Our results also point to how much fostering mind-sets — like work ethic and persistence — matter for workplace success,” as far as employers are concerned.

Not necessarily related to the pandemic, Finley also said that the consistent differences of opinion expressed by employers under 40 and those over 50 suggest that liberal arts-related skills and civic and community mindedness are becoming more important to employers, not less….

Lynn Pasquerella, president of the AAC&U, said COVID-19 demonstrated “the ways in which the complex challenges we will be facing in the future, as individuals, as a nation and as members of a global community, will require the integration of skills and competencies across disciplines and the examination of issues from a diversity of perspectives.”

As just one example of these kinds of challenges, Pasquerella reflected on the “moral distress” experienced by doctors and other health-care providers over the last year: decisions about who gets a ventilator when those and other resources are scarce, how to treat patients without the proper personal protective equipment, and how to restore trust in the communities disproportionately affected by the virus.

h/t Rob Townsend (@rbthisted)