Mapping future work skills in the bachelor of arts: findings from an Australian study

Abstract

The strengthening employability paradigm within higher education has led to a situation where the practical value of liberal arts programmes is contested. While the potential for such programmes to develop valuable generic skills is recognised, critiques of liberal arts programmes centre around their loose structure and lack of clear alignment with distinct professional employment pathways. This paper focuses on the representation of recognised employability skills within liberal arts curricula. It details the use of a Students as Partners methodology to investigate the inclusion of employability skills defined by the Future Work Skills 2020 framework within a Bachelor of Arts curriculum at an Australian comprehensive university. Our findings suggest a substantial disparity in the representation of employability skills within the curriculum studied. They prompt us to question the dynamics underlying the uptake and explication of employability skills in liberal arts contexts, and implications for the design and communication of liberal arts programme designs are discussed.