CE Units Enhance Adults' Employability with Liberal Education

From the June 2006 Issue of InFocus

A graduate student prepares a portion of the exhibit, "Whimsical Works: The Playful Designs of Charles and Ray Eames." Students taking the curatorial seminar at the Univeristy of Pennsylvania were responsible for all aspects of the show.

Photo courtesy of University of Pennsylvania.

Today's marketplace requires highly-skilled workers—a need that is projected to increase as an educated portion of the workforce retires. As jobs are continually redefined, individuals must learn to adapt quickly. Employers in many different fields have an escalating demand for graduates who possess good judgment, fine-tuned analytical, communication, and problem-solving skills, and appreciate cultural diversity. To meet this need, institutions are creating unique programs that combine practical business fundamentals with a liberal education. Liberal education—defined not as a particular kind of curriculum, but as a philosophy of education that develops intellectual and ethical judgment and a sense of civic responsibility—is what many employers believe will best prepare an individual for the 21st century workplace.

Harvard Business School's Executive Education unit will introduce two newly redesigned programs this fall—the Leadership Development Program and the General Management Program. The programs, which have integrated liberal learning into the curriculum, are aimed at executives with more than a decade of experience who want to broaden their skills in a meaningful way.

"Basically they are looking for how to become leaders rather than technocrats—leaders of societies, as well as their businesses," says Laura Nash, Senior Research Fellow at Harvard Business School. "In that way, the liberal arts are becoming an increasing portion of the curriculum in continuous education."

The programs combine interactive distance learning, classroom instruction on their Boston campus, case-study evaluation, and individual and group strategy exercises to sharpen the student's analytical and leadership skills. In the Leadership Development Program, students are assigned personal coaches who emphasize self-reflection and offer feedback on their work.

Preparing these participants for an international economy is another goal.

Students are required to collaborate with their classmates who happen to live in other countries. Learning to navigate the personal and logistical challenges involved with cultural—and time zone—differences deepens the value of their experiences. Nash explains, "By adding more interactive learning we make sure we build the right kind of knowledge and skills, of interaction and problem solving, that we see out there in globalization."

An exhibit, organized by students at the University of Pennsylvania, featured toys, children's furniture, manuscript, and whimsical films by artists Charles and Ray Eames.

Liberal Arts with a Business Sense

Kristine Billmyer, Executive Director, College of General Studies at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, describes an innovative liberal arts-based graduate seminar infused with professionalism. The class, entitled, "Museum Methods: Charles and Ray Eames and Mid Century Modern Design," departed from the traditional curatorial seminars in which students studied a pre-selected body of work and organized the work in a cohesive manner. Instead, for this course the students had to research and select the work, and also create, plan, and execute a bona fide exhibition.

"Students learned to view themselves as curators, and to take responsibility for many other aspects of professional work in a museum," Billmyer explains. "Each student took resonsibility for a different aspect of the process: administration, budgets, schedule, liaising with architects and designers, and so on. At all times they needed to be mindful of how each separate activity contributed to the fully integrated culminating event."

During the course of the seminar, the students were required to perform collaboratively, like a team of professionals. She notes, "Each contributed by sharing his or her own research, and by supporting each other collectively and individually. As a result, they brought to fruition a project that was characterized by remarkable unity and coherence in design."

The course culminated last summer in a locally and nationally acclaimed exhibition entitled, "Whimsical Works: The Playful Designs of Charles and Ray Eames." This experience in the Master of Liberal Arts program helped the students to recognize the talents acquired through liberal education and apply them in a practical way, better preparing them for employment.

No 'Ugly Americans'

At Washington University St. Louis, a new bachelor of science program is underway. The degree in Global Leadership and Management has components of a traditional business major, but incorporates classes that might be required of an applied psychology or intercultural studies major. Several of the courses were commissioned and specially created for the degree. By tapping resources in their own institution, professors in the English, History, and Psychology departments are designing innovative courses to be included in the 72-unit program.

Robert Wiltenburg, Dean of University College, explains "Our primary objective of this program is to turn out no more 'ugly Americans.' We do not need more Americans who simply assume that our system, our way, our language is going to be adequate to make you a global citizen, global leader or manager." Wiltenburg stresses that how the courses are taught is an important part of the program. "If you are going to have a liberal learning curriculum you must have a liberal learning teaching strategy as well. In some ways that is as much a part of a liberal learning design as the actual design of the curriculum. It is how you teach it and how you implement it that makes all the difference," he explains.

The goal is to limit the class size, with an average being 13 students and the maximum, 30. There will be three graded occasions in the first semester involving writing and revision. Active participation will be a large part of the course, "We want to make students responsible for knowledge through discussion and research projects," adds Wiltenburg. Taking a foreign language will also be encouraged, if not required, in the program. He sees the integration of the liberal education and business as a necessity rather than a choice. "We need to recognize that liberal education is what everybody needs. It's a matter of employment, full civic participation and building a better world."

—Kandace Gilligan