Have you heard of 'gold collar' jobs?

Brazell emphasizes the importance of educational institutions creating classes to meet this massive and continually growing market. Instead of the somewhat stigmatized term "vocational education," schools are now calling such courses "career and technical education."

"When people think of vocational education, they are often thinking of unskilled workers, but this isn't true," Brazell says. "These jobs pay very well and involve education beyond high school."

Career and technical education classes are "rigorous" and emphasize the merging of different technologies together because workers in such trades tend to no longer specialize; instead, they are what Brazell calls "multi-craft technicians" - integrating mechanics, electronics and computers into their work.

As industry demands for these technical workers increase, public and higher education are facing a change in some of their own focus to ensure that the workers of the future can meet the needs of this relatively new but massive market.