In September, a Wall Street Journal headline announced “Americans Without College Degrees Are Having One of the Best Job Markets in Years.” While college-educated workers face rising unemployment rates, those without college degrees are faring better than they have in recent decades.
The college degree has never been the only path to success, but the non-college path has often been poorly understood or dismissed as being “less than”. Our education and workforce systems have struggled to even come up with a name to categorize the set of occupations that are often high-skill but don’t require a four year degree, sometimes called “middle skills” jobs (a nomenclature with its own limitations). It may also be why the skilled trades are having such a moment: The category is well understood, with clear pathways, and the occupations represent areas of significant labor demand, as a recent report on the State of America’s Skilled Trades shows.
In her new book, “The New American Frontier: Job Training for the Next Technological Age,” Rachel Lipson offers a more expansive view of both the job opportunities that don’t require a four-year degree. Profiling the experiences of seven “frontier” regions, Lipson surfaces emerging occupations, from nuclear reactors to AI data centers, and the education and training paths that help workers access them.
The question of how best to match people to pathways in frontier occupations is well timed, as more public money is flowing toward pathways that don’t require one. This week, the Department of Labor opened applications for nearly $162 million in incentives worth up to $6,000 per new apprentice in fields including shipbuilding and telecommunications. Included is a $34 million initiative administered by Jobs for the Future that, alongside partners including the Global Electronics Association, will train workers to build and maintain semiconductor facilities, nuclear energy sites and data centers.
Curious to learn more? Readers in D.C. can join Lipson at the Aspen Institute on Tuesday, November 17 for a conversation with Rachel about the book and what it will take for regions to develop the talent pipelines to support both rapidly changing technologies and economic mobility for workers. Meanwhile, those interested in the new apprenticeship program can join a webinar on Thursday, November 12 to learn more.
This week, we’re also covering:
Workforce and Labor Trends, By the Numbers
Washington Just Bet Billions on College Alternatives. Small Towns Will Decide If It Pays Off.
New Generation Of Learners Requires A New Way To Measure Outcomes
Partnerships, Investments, and Company Innovation
What We’re Reading (And Listening To)
Workforce and Labor Trends, By the Numbers
Just 4 in 10 employed adults report having a quality job, according to a new Gallup report, unchanged from 2025. [Axios, subscription model]
Only 28.9% of workers say they receive enough AI training, even though 39.3% say their employer actively encourages AI use. 37.2% learn on their own because their employer provides no training, with the burden falling heavily on entry-level workers. [ZipRecruiter]
49% of employees consistently adopted new ways of working when their managers also did, compared to 22% of those whose managers did not. [HR Dive]
Washington Just Bet Billions on College Alternatives. Small Towns Will Decide If It Pays Off
The expansion of Pell Grants to short-term workforce training programs creates new opportunities for economic mobility, particularly in rural communities where traditional college pathways may be less accessible. However, StriveTogether CEO Jennifer Blatz warns that federal investments alone will not deliver results without stronger connections between schools, training providers, and local employers. She argues that strong community partnerships can help students navigate credential options and access meaningful career opportunities. [RealClearEducation]
Jobs and Education Are Top Voter Priorities, Even If Campaign Ads Suggest Otherwise
Voters across party lines rank job quality and education affordability among their top concerns, according to a new Jobs for the Future (JFF) survey. Eighty-one percent of registered voters say improving the quality of jobs should be a priority for elected officials, ranking it above reducing the federal deficit, yet less than half are satisfied with the attention it’s getting. JFF President and CEO Maria Flynn notes those issues barely showed up in this year’s midterm campaign ads and calls on newly elected lawmakers to put affordable education and training, along with stronger pathways to quality jobs, at the top of their agendas. [Forbes, subscription model]
New Generation Of Learners Requires A New Way To Measure Outcomes
Higher education institutions must rethink how they measure student success as learners increasingly pursue nontraditional educational pathways. Bin Thuy Do, vice president of research and development at Calbright College, believes conventional metrics may not fully capture the experiences and outcomes of today's students. Organizations like CredLens are helping expand how educational outcomes are measured and understood to align with the changing needs and goals of learners, placing greater emphasis on career outcomes, economic mobility, and long-term success. [University Business]
Partnerships, Investments, and Company Innovation
Anthropic, in partnership with Taproot, expanded its Claude Corps fellowship, which pairs trained professionals with nonprofits, to serve as consultants for small, short-term AI projects. Taproot will recruit and match the pro bono consultants, who will support nonprofits on AI-related initiatives. [The Associated Press]
RAISE US announced new funding from Apple, AT&T, the Bezos family, Google and Walmart, bringing its total commitments to more than $735 million. The group, which is working toward $1 billion in multiyear commitments, will use the money to grow apprenticeship and training programs, partnering with states and employers to support workers whose jobs are affected by AI. [Axios]
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the AI Jobs Institute, a Long Island City training hub run by workforce nonprofit Pursuit that will train up to 40,000 New Yorkers for AI-enabled careers by 2032. Empire State Development committed $3.06 million toward the $10 million hub, with backing from Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, Wells Fargo, Ascendium and others. [Office of the Governor of New York]
What We’re Reading (And Listening To)
Here’s How to Give American Workers the Credit They Deserve [RealClearEducation]
Room for Growth: A Survey of Upskilling Approaches — 2026 Analysis [Aspen Institute]
Companies Have a Solution for the Skilled Trade Shortage: More Women [Wall Street Journal, subscription model]
Fearing Mass A.I. Layoffs, Some in Congress Eye Ways to Aid Workers [New York Times, subscription model]
Why time is still the enemy of 3-year degrees [University Business]
Why AI Fluency Is The New Essential Skill [Forbes, subscription model]
Employers still want the degree [Lumina Foundation]
Why the biggest threat to talent marketplaces isn’t technology [University Business]
This edition of “New Skills, Talent and Development” was drafted by Annie Han, Ben Clatterbuck, and Keith Lee and edited by Julia Pasette-Seamon and Erica Price Burns.