Philosophy with Python: The Combination Students and Employers are Looking For

Innovation has catapulted industries to advance faster than ever. New technology options, programming languages, and software programs are popping up every day, driving demand for new ways of thinking and approaches to problem-solving. However, employers around the country are experiencing the same thing — a talent shortage.  

What’s causing a snag in the hiring process? Employers, particularly in the tech space, are struggling to find enough people with the right balance of skills to perform in these vacant roles. They are finding that even if they do find the technical talent, those prospective employees are often missing the human-centered skills needed to thrive.

Over the years I’ve read many reports reinforcing that nearly every employer in America today wants college graduates with broad skills in the liberal arts. They want lifelong learners, critical thinkers, and students with tremendous leadership skills — all things currently being taught at smaller liberal arts institutions. 

However, rather than reading these reports as validation of our decades-old approach to a broad-based liberal arts education, I believe we need to view the talent shortage as a call to action that small liberal arts colleges are uniquely positioned to answer. The talent shortage is not due to a lack of just “hard” or just “soft” skills - it is due to a dearth of graduates that offer employers both. It is critical we continue to prepare students for life-long careers, but it is equally critical that we prepare students with the skills they need for rewarding employment directly after graduation.

Higher Education (Ed) needs a new approach in arming students with more than just a fleeting idea of what a job in a tech startup or Fortune 500 may look like. They need the tools and resources to build concrete skill sets that will get them hired in a field they’re passionate about and well suited for. It’s time to reimagine how liberal arts colleges can upskill their students to have both the ingenuity from a liberal arts foundation, in tandem with the specific core skills required to get hired in today’s high-demand jobs. 

Skills Gap — Straight from the Source 

Back in 2016, I had a chance encounter with an executive from Google. We talked about the struggles of liberal arts colleges to sustain enrollment, to which his response surprised me. Google had problems of their own - they had been struggling to fill jobs for quite some time. This was one of the most coveted workplaces in America, yet they were having a hard time finding enough qualified people to fill vacancies. 

The right talent was incredibly hard to find, and not simply in highly technical fields like computer science, artificial intelligence, cyber security, and other technical positions. He said companies across the board needed graduates in human resources, sales, instructional design, web design, graphic design, and dozens of other person-centric and creative areas. 

The pipeline of graduates coming out of schools like Carnegie Mellon, MIT, and Harvard to supply large companies with the talent they need was simply not large enough. In fact, for all of the attention we give to these institutions, the top 25 most selective colleges educate just 1% of our nation’s students. The problem was quickly becoming a crisis within the tech industry, and that crisis continues today.  In fact, it has only gotten worse.

Google needs a highly educated, highly-skilled, high-tech workforce — employees who can do more than follow instructions. They need employees who can think, act, reflect, innovate, pivot, and come up with solutions and new ideas. Google values liberal arts majors armed with technical training to fill hiring needs, but they can't find enough of these graduates with that winning combination. 

Some employers are also calling it a 'preparedness gap’ where there are certain missing links at the college level that matter for workplace success. Employers say they find high value in students who are prepared for the workforce with a broad skill base that can be applied across a range of contexts and disciplines. These employers also say they appreciate a breadth and depth of learning in students who are independent thinkers, adaptable and versatile, while still technically capable and well-rounded. 

These desired candidates are precisely the type of student that attends or previously attended our liberal arts colleges - but at Adrian College, I knew we didn’t have the right mix of programs to offer the technical training. If we could be more responsive to labor market needs with our offerings, I believed colleges like Adrian were well-positioned to be a part of the solution.

Perhaps the answer to the problems plaguing private liberal arts colleges, like low enrollment, could also be the answer to the hiring shortages experienced by these companies. 

Upskilling Students Education

The higher ed model is ripe for restoration. Students are ready to upskill their education with a strong foundation in the liberal arts, as well as exposure to specific skills that companies with high-demand jobs are looking for (think applied computing classes like Foundations of Cloud Computing).

It’s on us to serve students so they’re set up for success with employability opportunities. We do that by ensuring colleges stay flexible to the student and their needs, and the employers we want to send them to. This ‘feedback loop’ generates a multi-faceted degree for students and real results for their future employers.

At Adrian, we've begun working with over a hundred small liberal arts colleges in the Lower Cost Models Consortium to deliver this "best of both worlds" model to students.  Over the last few years, we've developed majors, minors, and certificates in Computer Science, Digital Marketing, Web Design, Video Game Development, and more. 

Critically, these programs are developed and maintained with a feedback loop to top employers. Computer Science, as an example, was developed in collaboration with Google's Education team. Unity Technologies is a collaborator for Video Game Development, and students taking Digital Marketing courses earn badges from companies like HubSpot.

Every student who chooses to pursue one of these new academic programs will leave Adrian grounded in the lifelong importance of critical, flexible thinking as well the skills to land and thrive in their first job.

Preparing for the Future of Higher Education

The sort of education modern companies crave in their graduates must be understood by higher ed leaders. Innovation moves fast. What college students learn as a freshman may be old hat by the time they graduate. We must first enhance the traditional college experience, and ensure our college offerings are not only worthwhile to invest in but accessible to direct learning approaches that are promising to secure future employability. 

We don’t have 200+ liberal arts colleges isolated from one another. We have 1.5 million students attending small liberal arts colleges throughout the United States. If we collectively reframe our model to expand our curriculums, we can supercharge our institutions to offer expert instruction with a skills-focused, career-ready workforce sustainable for generations to come.