April is Financial Literacy Month. What exactly is financial literacy? It’s learning how to save and spend money. Most people make their money to save or spend by doing a job.
Today, there are many kinds of jobs that are based on new or growing technology. And people who do those jobs often learn how to do the jobs with nontraditional education. Nontraditional means that, instead of going to a four-year college to get a degree, they get training for that specific job. These workers might learn how to do their jobs in community colleges, special schools that teach the job, software boot camps, or high school programs. They might spend time as an apprentice, someone who learns the job from someone who is already an expert.
What are some of these jobs? Ultrasound technicians work for doctors. They use special equipment to make images of the inside of the body. Ultrasound technicians can go to schools that teach these skills. Another important medical job is pharmacy technicians. Pharmacy technicians process orders for medication and prescriptions. Pharmacy technicians can learn their jobs through special programs and then take a test in order to be hired.
Many companies need people to manage the cloud, or data on the internet. People who do this job often go to training programs to learn only how to manage the cloud. Cybersecurity is another job that will need a lot of workers in the future. Cybersecurity protects computers from attacks. You can learn to do cybersecurity by taking a special training program.
Experts call these jobs “new collar” jobs. And, as technology grows and changes in the future, there will be an even greater need for people to learn how to do new collar jobs.
What Do You Think? New collar jobs are jobs that require special training just to do that job. Would you want a job like this? Why or why not?
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