During the 2017 transition of political power in America, there were many unanswered questions surrounding the future climate of technology, businesses, and jobs. IBM, a company that has been around for 105 years, has seen many periods of change and uncertainty. Education, IT infrastructure, and healthcare are important passions of IBM. There is no other company that is positioned better to offer recommendations on the future of the technology industry. More and more incoming students, parents, and employers are realizing that a college education is not always needed, especially in technology jobs. Not everyone out of high school is emotionally and physically ready to go to a four year college. Even if they are, they often don’t know what degree program they want to pursue. IBM’s CEO believes a new kind of job is forming: “new collar” jobs. These jobs comprise of expertise in areas such as cybersecurity, data science, artificial intelligence, and cognitive business (Rometty, 2016). The college degree is becoming less of a necessity because vocational training can give prospective employees the needed skills to fill these jobs. Around one-third of people employed at IBM have less than a four-year degree. Rometty is championing for six year public high schools that include traditional high school and community college along with real-world job experience.
As “new collar” jobs expand, the IT infrastructure that supports these operations needs to expand too. These types of jobs involve the processing of massive amounts of data. This can require lots of memory and other storage capacities. The IT infrastructure in America needs to grow to support this. Investments in the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) can improve performance. As infrastructure gets bigger and smarter, the need for cybersecurity also increases. IBM wants America to build big IT infrastructure in a smart, methodical manner.