Federal policy for decades has pushed more people to go to four-year colleges, but technology is changing faster than colleges can keep up. So companies are increasingly taking matters into their own hands.

“AT&T Inc. is investing more than $1 billion to retrain over 100,000 workers through a patchwork of classes and programs that are helping them retool the Dallas-based company...

Federal policy for decades has pushed more people to go to four-year colleges, but technology is changing faster than colleges can keep up. So companies are increasingly taking matters into their own hands.

“AT&T Inc. is investing more than $1 billion to retrain over 100,000 workers through a patchwork of classes and programs that are helping them retool the Dallas-based company...