This resonates with my personal experience and with my observations. Just as one example, when I think back to what I learned in university, there is very little from my specialized business coursework that I would say has stuck with me and has been particularly relevant beyond the first few months of my professional career.

On the other hand, courses that I took to explore topics that I found interesting such as Spanish literature, Japanese, cinema and creative writing are something that I come back to time and again. Whenever I take on something new, I think back to these courses that took me out of my comfort zone and into areas where I wasn’t so confident that I would succeed. I remember that with a little curiosity and perseverance there is no reason to feel intimidated or put-off.

Unfortunately, this seems to be going against the grain of the mainstream thinking currently, as the relentless focus on STEM subjects seems to crowd out arts courses whenever there are budget trade-offs.

Hopefully we start to see this turn around.