Apprenticeships for software developers?

Silicon Valley’s Dark Secret: It’s All About Age:

In 2006, Zoho’s CEO, Sridhar Vembu, initiated an experiment to hire 17-year-olds directly out of high school. He found that within two years, the work performance of these recruits was indistinguishable from that of their college-educated peers. Some ended up becoming superstar software developers.

Put this fact into the ledger when trying to reckon the value of a college education in the modern world – both to the student, and to the company that hires the graduates.

There is a widespread belief that our modern world is so complex, so dependent upon high-technology, and specialized knowledge that can only be dealt with by those who have had layers upon layers of theoretical instruction, that it does not make sense for people to seriously start their careers as early as they used to. It likewise seems widely believed that apprenticeships would be impractical for learning to work in the modern world. Here is evidence that it is not.

The best education is not in busywork that students persevere through to inculcate theoretical knowledge, the best education is in doing.

The idea that you can learn how to do a lot of things just in case, is largely an illusion, but the expectation that you can learn them just in time may not be.