The Rise of New-Collar Careers: A Wake-Up Call for K-12 Education

A recent article in Forbes, 10 New-Collar Careers Paying Six-Figure Annual Salaries In 2025 , should be required reading for every school board member, superintendent, and curriculum director across the country.

Why? Because it shines a spotlight on a seismic shift in the world of work—one that education is still scrambling to catch up with.

The term “new-collar” describes jobs that require specialized skills but not necessarily a four-year degree. These are high-paying, in-demand roles in cybersecurity, cloud computing, AI operations, clean energy, and advanced manufacturing. Many of them emphasize on-the-job training, certificates, and microcredentials over traditional pathways.

And here’s the kicker: many of these roles didn’t even exist a decade ago.

As educators, we can no longer afford to prepare students for the world WE grew up in. The career ladder is being replaced by a lattice—one where students will move laterally across roles and industries, constantly upskilling in a fast-paced, tech-driven economy (see my work on generations in the work place).

Yet far too many of our schools are still built for an industrial-age model. We're obsessed with seat time, GPAs, and standardized tests—metrics that rarely align with the competencies demanded by these emerging fields.

It’s time to pivot our systems toward adaptability, digital fluency, critical thinking, and lifelong learning.

Project-based learning, performance assessments, career-connected learning, and authentic use of AI tools in the classroom aren’t just “nice to haves”—they’re the bare minimum if we’re serious about preparing students for these new-collar careers.

One of the most powerful takeaways from the article is that these new-collar jobs don’t just require technical skill—they require resilience, curiosity, collaboration, and the ability to solve novel problems.

So let’s stop treating “soft skills” like an afterthought. Let’s teach our students how to learn, unlearn and relearn. How to adapt, how to lead, and how to navigate ambiguity. These are the real currency of the future workforce.

If we want to do right by our students, we have to be willing to question long-held assumptions about what school is for and how it operates. That starts with bold leadership and a clear commitment to future-readiness.

So I’ll leave you with this:
How are you helping your students become future-ready rather than just college-ready?

What skills are we not assessing that will matter most in their careers?

How can we shift our culture to celebrate pathways beyond the traditional four-year degree?

What are we doing to prepare our educators to lead in this new world of work?

Let’s get uncomfortable. Let’s get creative. Let’s get moving.

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This article created with the help of ChatGPT as editor and thought partner.
This image created with Sora