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Companies looking to fill 'new collar' jobs

Posted at 4:01 PM, May 29, 2020
and last updated 2020-05-29 18:01:10-04

Typically you hear jobs classified as "white" or "blue collar" but there's a "new collar" job boom.

And IBM is offering some of those base skills for free which may help those unemployed get back to work.

KNXV looked into these "new collar" jobs and what job seekers need to know to get hired.

As the state and country deal with historic levels of unemployment a new career is coming to the forefront, so-called "new collar" jobs.

IBM Senior Education Manager Cliff Archey says they refer to these types of jobs as jobs of the future but "in reality they are here now."

These are tech jobs that don't require a 4 year degree, dealing with things like cloud computing, artificial intelligence, digital design and more.

"Having a basic understanding of these things is going to help you no matter what it is you choose to do because being more savvy regarding cybersecurity and how to secure network, being more user-centric and your approach to anything that you do, being agile and your project management systems that applies to a whole lot of different industries," Archey added.

IBM has launched an initiative called "Open P-Tech." It's a website aimed at offering some of those base skills for new collar workers-for free.

"We are really trying to get you to the point where you go from not having any knowledge to actually earning a baseline digital badge that's been validated by IBM. And you can do that totally for free on the site that takes anywhere from about between 6 to 12 hours to earn that. And you can add that to your LinkedIn profiles. You can add it to your resumes. So it's a really good way to just start that again career development journey," Archey adds.

Users have to sign up for an account and pick different fields and then get to learning. Interested users can visit ptech.org for more information.

But if none of those topics spark your interest there are other "new collar" jobs that don't require a degree, just some training.

Like at Silent-Aire in Chandler-who specialize in manufacturing HVAC solutions and data center cooling systems.

Silent-Aire Vice President of U.S. Operations Brett Manning says they've been very busy.

"With people moving online for meetings and telecommuting we've seen a tremendous uptick in demand for our product because the cloud service providers are trying to keep up with everyone moving to the cloud whether that's for streaming video Netflix and other things or doing meetings, telecommuting."

They're hiring for 150 positions.

Manning says, "We are primarily looking for assembly positions. Anyone who's had previous experience doing construction, assembling, or manufacturing that is going to be a plus."

There are safety measures in place for workers, like temperature screenings, masks, staggered break times and social distancing. They have a virtual job fair in the works but they are hiring immediately.

Visit Silent-Aire for a look at open positions.

KNXV's Allison Rodriguez first reported this story.