IBM Corporation

IBM entered the 2010s facing a fundamental skills mismatch. The company was repositioning from hardware and legacy IT services toward cloud computing, artificial intelligence (via Watson), and cybersecurity — businesses requiring capabilities in data science, DevOps, cloud architecture, and AI engineering. Its existing workforce of approximately 350,000–400,000 employees was predominantly skilled in mainframe computing, traditional application maintenance, and on-premise infrastructure — skills increasingly commoditized as workloads migrated to cloud. Hiring external talent to fill the gap was cost-prohibitive at scale and depleted institutional knowledge. Laying off legacy-skilled workers and replacing them wholesale with new hires was both operationally disruptive and reputationally damaging. IBM needed a systematic approach to retrain its existing workforce faster than the technology transition was occurring.

Under CEO Ginni Rometty, IBM launched the New Collar initiative in 2016 as a multi-year workforce transformation program:

• New Collar framing: IBM publicly reframed the skills gap as a "new collar" challenge — technology jobs that require specific technical training but not necessarily four-year degrees. This reframing shaped hiring criteria (prioritizing skills credentials over degrees) and internal training design.
• IBM Skills Academy: IBM built a modular online training curriculum covering cloud fundamentals, AI/machine learning, cybersecurity, and blockchain through IBM Skills Academy and SkillsBuild, available to employees and external learners.
• P-TECH school program: IBM launched Pathways in Technology Early College High Schools (P-TECH) — a 6-year combined high school/associate degree program in partnership with public school systems, creating a new talent pipeline for new collar roles.
• Apprenticeship program (2017): IBM launched a formal apprenticeship program placing graduates of skills training programs directly into paid roles as AI specialists, cloud architects, and cybersecurity analysts — bypassing the traditional degree requirement.
• Internal role redeployment: IBM developed an AI-driven internal career marketplace (later branded MyLearning) that matched employees' current skills with available roles, identified skills gaps, and recommended training paths.