Getting an arts degree: why should I bother?

Q: What did the Arts Undergrad say to the Science Undergrad? 
A: Do you want fries with that?

I went to a high school where it was compulsory to submit your VTAC application in the classroom. I had no idea what I wanted to study, and only a relatively clearer idea of what I didn’t want to study. I was 18! So, despite beginning the next year enrolled in a bachelor of arts at a prestigious university, I withdrew from the course before the census date and didn’t choose to study again until I had spent a couple of years working in a job that didn’t have a degree prerequisite. After that I knew a tertiary education was a benchmark requirement for almost every career pathway I had been contemplating. But is a degree in the broad field of humanities really worth the time, money and effort?

In the ten years between 2001-2012 the percentage of the Australian population with a bachelor’s degree or above increased from 17 per cent to 25 per cent. These studies could be in anything from engineering to agriculture. Fourteen per cent of people chose to qualify in the broad field of ‘society and culture’. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but when you look at the overall numbers it is – especially if these people aren’t going on to find jobs, and all of us will attest to the difficulty of finding a job in the arts, especially the creative arts where it seems that any jobs are usually in administrative roles rather than creative roles.

Interestingly, The Beyond Graduation Survey 2012 report compiled by Graduate Careers Australia found that in the years following graduation, those in the field of society and culture saw one of the largest increases in securing employment in relevant jobs between 2009 and 2012. This was not in the first months after graduation, but a few years down the track people reported that they felt their studies were relevant to the job they had. So the message seems to be enroll now – get your arts degrees while you can!

Steven Schwartz, Executive Director of the Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences, says he often sees middle-aged people return to study in the field to pursue a life-long passion, but believes people shouldn’t wait so long. “It is foolish because is it not necessary to choose between building a bank balance and nurturing our souls.” Schwartz says Google is just one example of a business that recruits humanities graduates specifically for their ‘problem-solving, clear communication and cultural understanding’. So you can enjoy studying topics you are curious about, then apply the skills learnt in learning them to pretty much any type of job out there.

But we are all more familiar with the other school of thought. Arts graduates are overqualified and underemployed! Soon even baristas will need a degree to get a job due to credential creep! It’s more difficult than ever to enter the job market! There is only so long you can survive on Youth Allowance!

BRW Columnist and former Managing Editor Tony Featherstone believes a shift in impetus from governments and not-for-profit sectors to Corporate Australia is necessary. That way courses could be tailored more to what employers are looking for in a combined effort with universities to ensure academic rigour is maintained.

“One can’t blame universities alone for the soft graduate market, as companies cut costs. Surely, if there is a strong demand for university courses such as journalism, universities should supply that education. Nobody forces students to take university courses for fields that have uncertain long-term job prospects…we have conditioned students to believe a full-time university degree is the best pathway to career success.”

But isn’t an arts degree as much about what it isn’t as it is about what it is? Let me explain.

I started my first year of university the year I turned 21 rather than when I turned 18 or 19. It may not seem like much of a gap, but in those years I moved out of home, got a full time job, travelled overseas and generally came to rely on myself instead of my parents. So I had a different view on studying compared with the more recent school-leavers. I also know that many people begin their arts-based studies much later than I did, having put far more thought into the why and how of it. My reflection is this:

To my mind there is no question that a sizeable chunk of what my studies taught me can be learned outside university and for the cost of an internet connection (note: library cards are free!), but perhaps an arts degree is just the framework and impetus to learn a whole lot that many of us need. Not to mention it gives you the piece of paper you need to get a lot of jobs out there. It is also a pretty nurturing place if you take the time to utilise the resources made available to you rather than rebel against them because university is just another step you are ‘expected’ to take in life. Or if this doesn’t sit well with you, you can just choose a different way of learning because as I said before, university isn’t the only way you can learn.

I once did some temp work for a Dentist who, upon finding out I was studying in the humanities field, pointed proudly to the framed Bachelor of Arts certificate alongside his Bachelor of Dental Science. He explained that after ten years in a ‘boring’ job he had decided to study a BA part time ‘just for fun’. I was at once angry with the way he trivialised my studies, yet sympathetic that he decided to go for a ‘safe’ career instead of one he felt more passionately about.

So I will finish with this: rather than whinging about what your studies don’t afford you, I think it would be a far better use of your time putting thought into what they do afford you. And hey, if all that is a chance to answer the question ‘what do you do?’ with a guilt-free ‘I’m a student’ for a certain portion of your life, then so be it. Besides, there are qualifications a lot more useless than an arts degree out there. It really just depends on what you do to make use of yours.

Unpaid internships: experience or exploitation?

Unpaid internships are almost de rigueur in the United States and parts of Europe. Many industries expect graduates to have at least 6 months of experience before they can get paid positions. Does that sound like a great way to get a foot in the door, to  you? Or more like just working for free?

Some companies rely on teams of unpaid interns

Long term unpaid internships are not as common in Australia. Yet. A report released by the Fair Work Ombudsman in February this year stated that unpaid internships are on the rise here and that, unsurprisingly, new graduates are the most likely to be exploited.

While internships are a valuable way to get experience, often in a more in depth way than a volunteering position. I think there are some serious issues with unpaid internships becoming the norm. I’ll explain why. Luckily, in this case, the bureaucracy is on my side; the Fair Work Ombudsman Nicholas Wilson stated:

‘if you’ve got a pretty firm agreement with your employer and it doesn’t have to be in writing to come into work and to get something in return and that might be just experience or being able to add to your resume, your CV, that is capable at law of amounting to an employment contract, [you] therefore should be paid at least the minimum wage.’

He differentiated this kind of quasi-job from work experience as part of higher education or training, which he says is ‘perfectly ok’.

I think that time is a big distinction between the two. A two or three month internship  you can fit in over summer is very different to six months. Unless you have parents who can support you, who has the money to work full-time for six months unpaid? Living in Berlin I found this was the norm required to enter many creative industries, making it really difficult for people who can’t afford to work for free for months on end.

Let me make it clear that unpaid internships are different from volunteering. Volunteering is usually part time, you fit it around paid work or uni. Also, the Fair work report highlights that unlike volunteering unpaid internships are for non-altruistic purposes. You may not have had completely selfless motives volunteering, if you  were doing it to try to get your foot in the door.  But, the organizations themselves are not-for-profit. This is different from for-profit companies using unpaid internships, which are making money from your unpaid work.

Getting coffee is probably not teaching you enough to be worth doing for free.

In Berlin I heard of companies relying on interns, one had two staff and six interns. You have to wonder, if you can’t afford to pay your staff, if your business model is actually viable. It also raises the question of whether these unpaid interns, who appear to be actually running the company, are filling what would be paid jobs. Probably the entry level positions the interns themselves were hoping to use the internship to get.

I’m not trying to say that you should avoid doing unpaid internships, especially if you can fit them around uni or paid work.  As the Fair Work Ombudsman states, the onus is really on companies not to exploit people trying to get into the industry.

Louise O’Conner from the Arts Media Alliance, the Australian Journo’s union, agreed, stating that the union tries to encourage employers to pay people if they are doing a job, rather than sanctioning journalists who work for free.

If you are working for free, you should be getting to work in your area of expertise

I figure if you’re mostly learning it’s worth doing for free, but if you’re actually doing a job you should get paid. It’s a conundrum where to draw the line, especially if you are trying to get your foot in the door to a competitive industry. I guess if you can afford to work for free, and feel you’re learning enough from it to make it worth it – do it. But I’m glad it’s not a necessity to enter the workforce in Australia.