Despite what you may have heard, an Arts degree is one of the most relevant and useful educational investments you can make today.

Here’s why:

An Arts degree doesn’t prepare you for one specific job; it gives you the foundation for hundreds of possible careers.

Studies in the Arts go far beyond the short-term gains of narrow specialization and limited career training. They provide broad-based benefits and deep grounding in the knowledge and skills needed for sustainable, meaningful employment over a lifetime.

As an Arts graduate, you will have achieved

• strong critical reasoning, argumentation, and strategic problem-solving skills
• communication skills, including reading, writing, speaking, and listening across diverse audiences and contexts in various situations, forms, and media;
• a skilled and informed ability to enter into debate and dialogue;
• flexible thinking for the integration and transfer of knowledge and cross-fertilization of ideas;
• exposure to diverse cultures, social forces, and ethical perspectives;
• respect for past and present challenges;
• the development of creativity, intuition, and empathy;
• information literacy and versatile qualitative and quantitative research skills;     
• the ability to think and work independently and collaboratively, and
• leadership skills.

As you think about how an Arts degree relates to your career interests, you might find it helpful to approach the question from three different angles:

1. Which careers require an Arts degree in order to enter them?

Certain professions can’t be practiced without the base-line academic credential of a BA, and may require another degree. Some examples:

• teacher in any Arts-related fields in early childhood, elementary, secondary, or post-secondary education.
• economists, social workers, anthropologists, and so on.

2. Which careers consider an Arts degree an advantage?

Many careers consider a specific Arts degree advantageous. Some examples:

• law, copy editing, publishing, advertising, journalism, research, acting;
• career counselling, immigration administration, human resources, motivational speaking, sales, business administration, psychologists;
• translation, travel and tourism, Civil Service, policy analysis, cultural tour consulting or guiding, public policy analysis, heritage work, title research.

3. Which careers thrive on a broad-based Arts foundation?

Many jobs are open to graduates of Arts degree of all kinds and thrive on the broad-based benefits these studies bring. Some samples:

• fundraiser, researcher, administrator, management consultant, retail management, humanitarian and NGO work.

Important Tip! To strengthen your Arts degree, it’s smart to gain additional work-related experience and skills: think about

• relevant summer, part-time, and volunteer opportunities, both on and off campus;
• Arts courses that offer applied learning components through experiential learning, service learning, co-ops, and internships;
• the Work-Study program, which provides eligible UPEI students with opportunities to work on campus during the academic year;
• volunteering to participate in faculty research projects related to your career interests;
• broadening your educational and cultural experience through study abroad or work abroad.

What Can You Do With An Arts Degree? Anything You Want!