I look at countries like Germany that have many more defined education/apprenticeship pathways.  Go to a small hotel and the person serving will have had the right combo of education and apprenticeship and expectations of excellence and also recognition as a master in their area of endeavour.  We tend to have minimum wage entry - although some may have gone to community college. I thought about German streaming at public school - was at first not supportive, but it instills academic performance and career thinking early.  A different system that I am not saying duplicate but certainly we can learn from. This article speaks to what we all know - it needs bigger thinking and solutions than what is currently being proposed.