The only thing you can get with an art degree is a job at McDonald’s. When I dropped out of high school in 2010, long enough to look back with confidence on how things turned out, but recent enough that I can still give advice to high school leavers, I was told.
Naturally, the advice came from smug science students I met while pinning down my English Literature and Modern Irish degree at my alma mater, University College Dublin.
Or maybe it came from those who had completed an art degree years ago and found when they graduated that they had no clear career path, forced to make up for it along the way rather than go straight into a job the university had qualified them for without years of unemployment. or the need for further study.
This year’s group of school leavers will be faced with well-intentioned advice from family members, teachers and friends when choosing a diploma.
As the cost of living continues to rise, they are under more pressure than ever. They may wonder whether it is wise to study Ancient Greek, Linguistics, or English Literature, the easiest of all art schools to despise.
There is no doubt that graduates are under more pressure to perform at a time when it is not easy to earn a living despite a shortage of workers.
It is also necessary to future-proof careers to face each subsequent crisis.
For this observer, a shift in what is prioritized in university education tells its own story.
While classics was once one of the most prestigious degrees, Howard University in the US has relieved its entire department.
Sheffield Hallam University will withdraw its English Literature degree into a wider English degree from next year, shortly after the University of Cumbria took similar action.
This doomsday about the value placed on art degrees was common when I was a fresh 18-year-old, but perhaps I was too naive to pay attention to it or too eager to go to college, where at the very least I marginally better protected against the effects of a recession.
We’ve now been told that apprenticeships are the best way to go beyond Stem’s jobs, which were in vogue when I was a teenager.
While arts graduates are told that there is no place for them in big companies and that there are few career prospects, that is not the case.
If a recent graduate thinks they have no choice but to get more education, at least the fault lies with the universities.
When I got my degree I immediately went on to do an MA that would help me work in an industry I wanted to work in because that was what I was told I had to do.
We pay a lot of money to get an education, but all the evidence points to arts graduates earn less.
A similar situation applies to those who teach college students, with academics increasingly faced with job insecurity.
While my first degree may not immediately set me up to earn friends who chose to study actuarial science, medicine, or even teaching, my advice to graduates would be that there is little point in choosing a degree just for the money. unless you know at the tender age of 18 that it will be your main motivation in life.
Personally, I would never have been able to study science and would not have been suitable for an apprenticeship as an electrician due to my lack of interest in those subjects and therefore my inability to remember all the relevant information.
Likewise, I could never have worked in those areas, as I would have lived my life for the precious two days of the weekend alone, counting the hours each day until I could leave work, feeling totally unenthusiastic about my career choice.
Art subjects, such as the one I chose to study, may not be fashionable right now, but for school leavers, it will always be fashionable to choose an industry that interests them and that doesn’t affect them every second of the workday. hate to let go.
In defense of art graduates, we have learned skills that are necessary. In a world where sensitivity is key, we have the ability to negotiate language, analyze information and its nuances, and think creatively and critically – skills that are increasingly rare in a world where we tend to see things in black. white to see.