You can always learn a trade after or while going to college too. With a college degree you can more easily be promoted in a companies trade such as estimator, supervisor, manager and all the way to the top and then to owning your own company.

Sure you can make six figures in some trades working long hours of overtime that are physical demanding but how many years can you keep that up? Can you still perform at age 50-60?

The father (civil engineer) had it right IMO, educate yourself. It's not the fault of the education that keeps you from having a job, it's the application of the education.

SteveS