Where lies the future of jobs - STEM or humanities?

The Mckinsey Global Institute has predicted that the developing economies of South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa will supply nearly 60 per cent of the world’s new workers by 2030 if the right steps aimed at developing the skills of the labour force are put in place.

Are these right steps in the study of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) or in humanities and business studies?

Proponents of STEM argue that artificial intelligence, robotics and new technologies are eroding certain categories of jobs and creating new ones. They point to the prediction that as many as 50 million potential new jobs are expected to be created in the technology industry by 2030.

Proponents of humanities on the other hand cite the same report and contend that automation will have a far lesser effect on jobs that involve managing people, applying expertise and social interactions.
Additionally, they point to the latest World Economic Forum report which lists 10 critical job skills and argue that attributes such as managing people, service orientation, emotional intelligence and negotiation are directly acquired by studying the humanities and business.

It is for this reason that the Springboard, Your Virtual University, a radio programme on Joy FM, invited two resource persons to debate on which of these two areas of study will create more job opportunities in the near future.

Arguing for STEM was the Head Teacher of the Africa Science Academy, Mrs Efua Adabie, while the Head of Human Resource at Old Mutual Life Insurance, Dr Hazel Berrard Amuah argued for the Humanities.

What humanities bring to society

Dr Amuah said both fields of study were very relevant to a very large extent and the important thing was for the country to be able to drive an upward trend in equal terms in both fields of study.

She, however, argued that humanities and business were the drivers of society, attributing the drop in moral standards in society to the decline in the study of humanities.

She also pointed out that the study of humanities prepared the future generation well to be able to take up leadership positions and drive society.

“How can a robot run a country? How can an engineer chair the United Nations (UN) for example? “You can programme a robot to a very large extent to be able to do some of these things, but to what extent?” she asked.

She said while STEM brought a lot to the table in terms of building certain facilities and infrastructure, “If we need to build a good society, it is imperative that we have people in humanities as business leaders diving science and technology.”

“If you look at corporations ­­globally, who are those building these companies? They are human beings and the study of humanities teaches us how to manage a good society, which is very relevant,” she explained.

Humanities drive STEM

While admitting that STEM was equally relevant as it brought a lot of value to the table, Dr Berrard Amuah said it was humanities that drove STEM.

“Humanities are the fundamental key drivers of STEM and the backbone without which STEM cannot stand,” she stated.

“If you want to even have STEM being driven strongly in schools when it comes to education, we should continue that alongside the study of humanities because without it, STEM cannot succeed,” she noted.

She added that “we have to balance the study of STEM and innovation with the fundamental principles of arts and business. As we encourage science and technology, we should not lose sight of our humanities.”

Future is STEM

While admitting that humanities and STEM go hand in hand and that the country had developed because of both, Mrs Adabie, for her part, argued that STEM held the future and that was where people should focus on because it would create all the jobs in the future.

Touching on the relevance of STEM, she said: “When you think about your day, when you wake up in the morning, what do you encounter? You wake up in a bed which is made by STEM, drink water that is purified by STEM, then you look at the clock which was made possible by STEM.”

She said the typical day for an average person was full of science and technology.

“If you look at how nations have developed from the past, from industrial revolution, it was all based on STEM,” she explained.

Job creation

Mrs Adabie indicated that STEM brought about job creation in so many different fields.

“It has the skills that one needs to solve the problems of today. We have to go into STEM in order to excel,” she stated.

“When you step into STEM initially, you can have the technical skill, become an engineer and later learn humanities to acquire certain skills in order to become a very good manager. If you try to do it the other way round, there will be problems,” she added.

She said it was very difficult to have someone who had done humanities changing to later becoming an engineer, but it was easier to start with STEM and later branch into management. — GB