Click photo illustration for larger image. March Lecture The Arts Education Collaborative is hosting a lecture by Dan Pink at 9 a.m. on March 15 at the Soldiers and Sailors National Military Museum & Memorial. Call 412-201-7405 for more information.

Math and science are the big talking and testing points in education these days. But human resource experts believe that to truly succeed in the global economy, tomorrow's workers may benefit most from studying and participating in the arts.

Critical thinking and problem-solving skills, teamwork, creativity and innovation, professionalism and mathematics are key components of the arts -- and are considered vital to competing in the global marketplace. But nationally, only 20 percent of employers said their employees possess these competencies, according to a 2005 Society for Human Resource Management study, "The Future of the Labor Force.".

"Our school systems still are based on agricultural and industrial models," said Vanessa Lund, project director of the University of Pittsburgh's Human Capital Policy Initiative, which works to improve policymakers' understanding of economic and work-force development issues.

Phyllis Hartman of PGHR Consulting, a strategic human resources planning consulting firm in McCandless, agreed. "There is still a lack of understanding in HR circles of the value of the arts, unless the product or service of the company itself is art," she said.

Arts education "nurtures many transferable skills, including creativity, innovation, teamwork, lateral thinking, intuitive reasoning and thinking outside the box," added Hilary Robinson, dean of the College of Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon University.

The three were among several regional artists and teachers who spoke of the quality of arts education and the challenges that public schools face at a forum presented last week by the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council and the MetLife Foundation.

Many pointed to funding as the main barrier to arts education, saying creativity seems to be squashed by the big fist of testing requirements set forth by the No Child Left Behind initiative. "The historical and cultural context is needed when teaching art, not just factoids about who painted what picture," said Sarah Tambucci of the Arts Education Collaborative.

Arts educators also argued that the region could greatly benefit from attracting more artists. "Pittsburgh is perfectly poised to be a national model for arts education," Ms. Tambucci said.

Nathan Martin, a graduate of CMU's College of the Fine Arts, knows firsthand the benefits of an arts education in the business world since his company, DeepLocal Inc., was born in an art studio.

The 4-month-old company developed out of research conducted through CMU's Studio for Creative Inquiry, an art and technology research lab. The company has developed MapHub, a geographic information-mapping platform that helps regional groups collect, manage and share data from disparate sources.

Since entering the business world, Mr. Martin has realized that artists have unique ways of looking at and solving business problems. "Specialists often believe that they know what not to do," he said, "but amateurs and artists are not hindered by any of those rules, and are free to try anything.

"What we lack in business experience, we make up for in creativity."

In fact, author Dan Pink calls a master's in fine arts degree "the new MBA." In his book, "A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future," he argues that the MFA is one of the hottest credentials in the world of business because of the creativity that art students bring to product design and marketing.