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8TH AUG 2008
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 The sophisticated manipulation of signs is the stuff of both literature and high finance. Both disciplines are involved with the creative manipulation of abstract ideas, using analogies, moving spheres of reference, performing to an audience... this would lead one to assume that the City should be stuffed with English graduates.
After all, pundits on the knowledge economy talk in post-modern terms of chains of credit and information, of global and local networks, of the innovative city environment. New businesses spring up to serve these, from coffee shops to web-designers to corporate communications companies. Meanwhile, English - the very discipline which boasts of how it analyses creativity – appears at first glance to aspire only to sidling a poet into a company foyer. Yet surely English graduates are the best at tactfully moving between words and things; they are the best at knowing what communicative structures produce the most creative responses; they are the best at reader response. They could be - and maybe already are - treasures in the City.
Or are they? Better find out…. Eben Muse and Ceri Sullivan (from Bangor University's National Institute of Excellence in the Creative Industries, and the School of English) have got a grant from the English Subject Centre (ESC) to grill City tycoons.
They'll be asking a sample of English graduates now in merchant banking, stock broking, pension fund management, and accountancy the big three questions: whether and how the study of English increased their efficiency, what they think creativity is in their profession, and how English academics might be of use in extending their business or providing training. In short, the rude question: is English any use?
The financial firms concerned will get an understanding of what research resources English academics can provide, and a sense of how to pitch recruitment material to get and keep the most creative English graduates into the hottest area of the economy. And for the English subject community? A demonstration of how English (not just ‘the humanities’) is valued for its subject specific skills, a set of case studies that will substantiate the anecdotal advice on careers we give students - and, last but not least - a sense of what management consultancy or collaborative projects the City might welcome from staff.
They’ll be producing a report for the ESC, all university careers offices, and recruitment officers in participating firms, and a couple of opinion pieces for a financial and a recruitment newspaper respectively. And perhaps electrifying us all with ways to monetize our talents!
Provided by The Student Zone (United Kingdom) |
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