College was designed and mostly still is designed to give people a general education. When the society sees it as a pathway to become a professional.

While it does help, it is definitely not the best way to get a job.

As my former job, I founded a software engineering school that was very similar to what apprenticeships provide: hands-on learning. We did not have teachers, no lectures, students were learning by working on coding projects, very easy at the beginning, reaching industry standard by the end of the program.

And this type of methodology, coming from progressive education (Montessori is a spin of this) also works to become a life-long learner. In my opinion, actually way more efficient than traditional college.

Apprenticeship has this bad rep of being for blue collar jobs, I hope this will shift. So many of us in the tech industry have mostly learned on our own and on the job. I think we are the leaving proof that this type of program are extremely efficient.