Leaders of two major B.C. universities are defending the importance of a classical university education after the provincial government indicated post-secondary institutions should focus on filling jobs.

In the February Throne Speech, the province called for the re-engineering of B.C.’s secondary and post-secondary institutions to make sure students have the skills to fill the expected one million job openings by 2020.

While everyone has heard about the coffee shop barista with a liberal arts degree, a BA is actually one of the surest ways to economic and personal success, University of Victoria president Jamie Cassels says.

Simon Fraser University president Andrew Petter cautioned against cutting university spaces in favour of skilled trade training, saying a shortage of college and university graduates would be more serious than a shortage of skilled tradespeople.

“The mistake is trying to say one thing is important and the other isn’t,” Petter said.

“The reality is there is going to be serious shortages for all kinds of post-secondary education, including trades. If you look at the government’s own Labour Market Outlook, it shows that if we don’t increase capacity, there will be an even greater shortage for people with university credentials.

“That’s not surprising. Even if you think of the natural resource sector, like LNG — in order to develop that sector, you’re going to need geologists, engineers, people who can deal with aboriginal issues, people who can do social and environmental impact assessments, and people with business expertise, all of which call upon university skills.”

Cassels also emphasized that B.C. should not be giving greater weight to the skilled trades over universities.

“There is almost this either/or debate going on about skilled trades versus universities. It says what we need is more kids in skilled trades, and universities should refocus their program to produce more job-ready graduates,” Cassels said.

“The point I like to make is, first of all, it’s not an either/or. We need it all. We’ve just come through a period of soft economy and higher unemployment, but we’re moving into a more healthy economy with much higher employment, and we’re going to need all sorts of properly educated and trained people, all the way from the skilled trades to people with PhDs in neuroscience.”

The B.C. Labour Market Outlook for 2010 to 2020 says the vast majority of the one million new jobs it projects will require some post-secondary training, with 42 per cent requiring a skilled trade or college diploma and 35 per cent a university degree.

In a recent survey of chief executives at Canada’s biggest companies, respondents said the traits they look for most in people they hire are communication, problem solving, and people and analytical skills, Cassels said.

“For me, those top skills all describe perfectly what a humanities education equips you with. What’s a better way to learn about how people think, learn and behave than, say, studying literature or cultural studies?” Cassels said. “These are exactly the skills that you need to deal with that uncertain future: adaptability, problem-solving, the ability to research, the ability to communicate. Those are the 21st-century skills.”