>I guess the crux of my issue is that employers still want to see people have a college degree + trade skills, and not just trade skills alone.
Is this actually true? ie. are they seriously looking for welders that know how to weld and have a college degree? I doubt that's the case. My impression is that all of the "you need a college degree even though it's not really needed" kind of jobs are entry level service jobs, or jobs that otherwise have a flood of applicants. College degree is used as a filter in those situations just to whittle down the huge applicant pool, not because the applicants "simply aren't getting enough educational foundation in high school anymore".
