Completely agree. I have two kids going to university soon and it really worries me the debt burden they will take on. I genuinely don't know whether it's worth it.
It should be a far more considered decision these days than it actually is. My advice would be to work out what they actually want to do and if there is a non-uni route then they should go for it. I would also suggest they also apply for Uni even if their is a non Uni route. It’s risky to put all your eggs in one basket and may not get their preferred option.
Non-Uni routes may be badged as an apprenticeship but don’t be fooled into thinking that means £2.50 an hour and 1 day a week at some dodgy college, it really isn’t like that anymore. Most jobs with training are badged as an apprenticeship these days, even professional stuff like accountancy. They do it because they have to pay the apprenticeship levy, they might as well claw some of that back as they meet the criteria anyway.
If they are not sure or are a bit vague about what they want to do, then I’d suggest they go to Uni if they are capable of getting a 2.1 or higher. It will open up a load of generalist grad schemes in all sorts of sectors with a degree in almost at anything.
As Dowie mentioned, accountants/audit/tax advisers take school leavers on very similar terms to graduates. It’s not just a big 4 thing either, even small local accountants run these programs. They offer a fully funded scheme which will give a school leaver one or two two full professional qualifications (those specialising in tax will do CTA on top of the normal ACA/ACCA), no debt and getting paid a good salary at the same time. It’s basically the same as the graduate course but it takes a school leaver a little longer to complete than a grad but they start 3+ years earlier so actually progress though the profession much faster. When you finish the ACCA/ACA, you can submit an optional dissertation and they’ll also give you a Bsc. Why would you bother with Uni if you could do that?
Schools push kids to go to Uni but their are other options out there but they just don’t know it (hint: there’s a good chance of getting a place on one of these with a big national/multinational firm if you are a bright and do really well out of it). The only thing schools/colleges push is UCAS applications to help their stats but it can be really quite poor advice at times.
That said I went to Uni and have an average degree but I have no doubt that the skills I gained (plus some hard work) have helped my career. I was one of the last ‘plan 1’ students, so even with a full maintenance and fee loan my debt was a fraction of a similar grad today and the interest rate is the base rate +1% (so 1.1% at the moment). It doesn’t get written off until state pension age but I’ll have paid it off in a few years without making any additional contributions.