New-Collar Career Profile: Employability Skills Are the New Job-Market Currency

New-collar careers combine hands-on work with technical and professional skills, often supported by targeted education. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics lists many of these new-collar careers among the fastest growing, driven by technology, skills-based hiring, rising college costs, and demand for practical expertise. Yet a national skills gap remains, underscoring the Reshoring Initiative’s call for “a good career for everyone,” not “college for everyone.”

Skilled trades such as plumbing, electrical work, and HVAC are attracting the “Toolbelt Generation”: people choosing stable, practical careers with less automation risk and debt. These affordable, flexible career pathways can lead to meaningful, well-paying opportunities.

Advanced manufacturing and digital shipbuilding rely on automation, analytics, AI, and 3D visualization to raise quality and productivity while expanding access to technical careers. Classrooms should introduce these tools so new-collar candidates enter the workplace ready to contribute.

Building Career Readiness

Competency-based education can strengthen engagement, confidence, equity, career readiness, durable skills, and motivation to learn. Research also connects mastery-based progression with higher achievement, including RAND-reported gains of 23% in reading and 18% in math.

Since 2013, Mississippi has risen from near the bottom to among the top states in fourth grade reading and, after demographic adjustments, first nationally in fourth grade reading and math. Its gains came from science-of-reading reforms, shifting literacy instruction from traditional to evidence-based practices.

Success requires a mindset shift: adopting science-of-reading instruction, using aligned practices, and giving teachers time to learn, analyze data, and respond to students. Pass rates are not enough; teachers must identify who struggled, why, and how to adjust. Mississippi’s progress reflects sustained implementation and funding—$9.5 million in 2013 and $15 million annually since—without outside philanthropy. Still, funding alone is insufficient if key policies remain optional.

Some states have eased accountability and lowered proficiency standards, sometimes for equity. Others, including Louisiana and Alabama, show promise with Mississippi-like strategies. The most debated policy is retaining third graders who are not proficient readers, because by fourth grade catching up becomes much harder and the effects can last.

Schools can prepare new-collar graduates by strengthening technical skills, digital fluency, social awareness, emotional intelligence, civic responsibility, and career readiness. The Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (AJROTC), whose mission is to “motivate young people to be better citizens,” supports this work through a Cadet Creed that emphasizes loyalty, honesty, accountability, citizenship, leadership, and respect for American values.

What Needs to Change

Minimum grading policies, such as a 50% floor, can weaken motivation and engagement. Grading should promote achievement, responsibility, and a love of learning. Because workplaces expect timely completion, unfinished work without consequences can create habits that conflict with job expectations.

Students with learning challenges have historically dropped out at triple the rate of general education students. Reading gaps worsen the problem: many at-risk students read below grade level, and most who are not proficient by third grade never catch up. These barriers reduce graduation, postsecondary success, earnings, and employment while increasing juvenile justice involvement. With early, research-based intervention, more than 90% of students can learn to read and succeed in work, the military, or post-secondary education. My son and I are dyslexic. With research-based support at Denver Academy, he moved from a struggling reader to an honors graduate, showing how effective early intervention can help most students reach grade level proficiency.

Moving Forward

Community-led Educational Partnerships can provide guidance, mentoring, skill-building, and early research-based support for struggling students while helping advanced learners to grow. Educators and administrators should value demonstrated employability skills alongside GPA and graduation rates.

Parents, students, educators, administrators, and communities share responsibility for helping new-collar students’ graduate literate, skilled, and career ready. New-collar profiles can align these efforts by defining the skills, mindsets, and experiences students need from pre-K through graduation. Education should connect vocational training with career pathways, equipping learners with practical skills for in-demand careers while supporting economic growth.

Glenn Marshall is dyslexic, president of the Virginia Peninsula Military Officers Association of America. He volunteers with the Association for Manufacturing Excellence and Newport News Shipbuilding Career Pathways and is a member of the Reshoring Initiative. Email him at marsh8279@aol.com.