and they won't get on the tools for laboring jobs either because they all think being paid a small amount with an apprenticeship first year is too little. They should be on what tradesman are on, even though they aren't qualified and have no knowledge.
the propriatoriness of useful knowledge and understanding is often a scam, and one to which formal education is often forced politically to bend the knee. this is not a mechanism that is by any means the will of honest educators nor in any way a result of their intent. so i can't just flat out say there aren't problems. and there is a great deal one can learn simply by observing their environment. but there are things people find advantage in, that an ant climbing up the bark of a tree, isn't by itself going to teach us.
The only criteria that academics have ever discovered for reliably predicting anyone's career potential is the amount of working memory they possess. My father likes to say that all education does is tell prospective employers that you can be trained in specific ways. One sister of mine double majored in mechanical engineering and English, only to get a job running an IT department. With all the newer AI and whatnot coming on the market I'm sure employers will soon even be able to tell just how well you conform to the ideal person they want for any specific job. A mindless drone who will do whatever they are told for the most part, but can be somewhat creative when it might make a real difference. Hence, education can be great if you already conform to mainstream values and possess a great deal of working memory, however, a friend of mine made more money than his ex who had a Phd merely by fixing up used cars and selling them. The system is so biased towards memory that, periodically, someone discovers a Phd graduate who has had a successful career for decades and is functionally illiterate. Despite the universities knowing all of this, since it is based on their own studies done over decades, they don't test people for working memory because making money is their goal rather than admitting they are merely part of the military-industrial complex and machinery.
if career potential is the only reason for wanting to learn anything, well that's the first big mistake right there. people can get diseases if they refuse to wipe their own ass unless someone is paying them to do so.
Its not a mistake if money is all that matters to you and if money were not all that matters to institutions of higher learning then they would already be testing applicants for their working memory and advising them according to their own values.
if money is all that matters to you, that IS the mistake. and of course, the second have of that, well the last time i took any classes they did, at least more or less half way, but then its been a couple of decades. a country that won't train people, and won't let trained people in, is totally killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Money isn't evil, its what people do with money that can be a problem and if someone's good at making money and even better at spending it wisely, more power to them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAgTjsxJ8NE This could be a result of encouraging career oriented people away from the trades and into college. It seems like a lot of college graduates are willing to work without getting paid in unpaid internships whereas trades has the opposite problem. I really am beginning to think that trades is a much better option than college right now. I'm 22 with not much education and only minimum wage jobs as work experience, how can I get into the trades? Should I just apply to labor unions?
I feel like if you have the opportunity and chance to go to college, go for it. It can be a really great experience. But it's not the only way to learn, get a job, or education. And as someone without a college education, I see too many of my college educated peers struggling to find work and ultimately working along side me for the same pay.... with college loans to pay off!