Sometimes a desired career field requires college. The hard sciences and engineering certainly do. But there is a quickly diminishing list of qualified schools for those.
A good 60 year old mechanic is miles and miles ahead and of any newly minted “engineer” that is thrown into our industry-(oil and gas) It’s a disgrace that the “engineer” is making 3 times what the wrench twisters are making.
At one point college was a very good option. You chose a career you were interested in and learned it at school. However, then it became this “perfunctory” type of decision where you were expected to go “or else”. All this did was create a environment to party, be away from home and be indoctrinated. I would guess over 90% of jobs don’t require any college and most can be learned as an apprentice or training.
Companies used to look at schooling as a prerequisite now they want to see references and how long you’ve been at a job (track record).
We have a few friends that own businesses and they are (still) finding it really hard finding good help. They’re hiring people over 50 that want to work....because they have wasted enough time and money on the woke idiots that feel entitled to make $1 million per year working from home in their pajamas.