I graduated college 2 decades ago and I'm still paying off student loans for an education that proved to be useless (My parents and guidance counselor didn't want me to be a loser like those tradesmen!).
I'm unemployed/looking for work and I'm at a weird place in my career where I need to learn new skills. Problem is there's no more on-the-job learning anymore, every employer wants you to be a fully-formed employee that fits their exact needs that they don't have to train. And every job is so specialized that, for the most part, skills you do end up using in one job probably aren't transferrable to another job.
To get ahead, the options available to most people are:
1) Go back to college for 4 years and get in even more debt
2) Take a bootcamp and spend money you don't have (Most don't offer flex payment or financial aid)
3) Work on some projects in your spare time that won't be accredited
In the end money and/or time could be wasted for something that won't pan out. Or your teacher could be useless and you spend all this money for nothing.
Unless you're a doctor or lawyer, I honestly don't think most jobs require 4 years of learning. Most college grads end up in corporate jobs, and most of those jobs amount to data entry or writing emails/making phone calls. You don't produce anything, you just fit into a place in the machine that helps it run. I have no idea what most people in corporate jobs actually do.
/Rant