Apprenticeship is the new unknown calling for some!

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I can speak on the trades. I know many trade related business owners and they all report that there just aren't enough young people going into the trades. Most are licensed contractors in their field and have to take continuing ed courses each year or two, in order to renew their license. Most have told me that every other student in their classes are at least 40+ with the majority being over 50. Getting a contractors license, welding cert, HVAC certs/license, Electrical lic., plumbing, automotive etc just takes time and then a certain amount of money to meet licensing criteria. A person can learn and get paid to learn and take classes for whatever trade they are in and let the employer pay for the training. Heck, even Dental Assistants I and II can learn on the job, do training, get xray certified and get paid while they learn. Surgical techs, optometrist assistants  and in some places Medical assistants can all learn on the job and challenge the test after the hours are put in to meet criteria. I know orthodontists that will hire people straight out of school to train them and declare that they make better assistants. 
  Google hires people with 0 experience and trains them as do many other tech companies.
I really feel like there are going to be some more pretty big changes to the education sector in the future because companies have clued in that not everyone has to have a degree to be great at their job and sometimes are even better at it because they didn't go to college. 
 ( my own dentist told me to never spend the $$ to send my kids to UNCCH for certain degrees. He said the lack of real world experience really hurt he and his wife when they opened their dental practice.) 
  My nephew learned HVAC but isn't a business owner. He does what he can/allowed to do, on the side and he's had weekends where he's made double in two days, what he made at his normal job all week. Pretty fantastic side money in my book !!

Here's a story about the decrease in the number of people going into the trades
Building Skills With 'Generation NEXT' - This Old House