it makes a lot of sense for a person’s competency to be tested through the industry, not a system of “higher education” that may have become completely disconnected from employers over time.
The whole idea of university providing a liberal arts education, broadening the mind to wider aspects of culture besides just one's major, was a good idea that originated before mass communications, and when the culture still had a single originating moral ethos in Judeo-Christianity. Administrators could require a "core curriculum" without it becoming subversive of either one's God or one's nation. All that has gone to hell in a handbasket, and the fillers and fluff are for the most part unneccessary.
Now, people can get "broadened" by access to mass communications, although the level of historic or factual accuracy is at present quite low. Some creative media companies could find a market for various packages of "liberal arts" materials, similar to the Great Books series, and crafted for various media platforms, with certification possible on completion. This would enable engineers to get dates.
Just joking; however, individuals could add to thier portfolio of certifications throughout their lives, avoiding the life-altering wreck of immorality, indoctrination and mental and physical threats that four-year sleep-away college now inflicts.
The market could sort out which types of materials are viable, and any number of cultural institutions could commission packages—the New York City Library, Heritage Foundation, the Family Research Council, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Commonwealth of Virginia, etc. Content might be sort of like public television, but very focused; participants pay for it, and take tests online or some other method to receive a certificate to add to their certificate portfolio.
Online schools with tests that prove one's learning will replace universities.
A thousand years ago, I earned my CPA certificate after qualifying by taking equivalency exams.
I basically proved I knew as much as a graduate in accounting by merely studying the texts.
And in my employment at Coopers and Lybrand (in those days)...I moved up with alacrity.