An apprenticeship isn't a generalized education like going to college is. Even though I majored in computer science, I still took physics, chemistry, english, psychology, and more classes.
If I did an apprenticeship, I feel like my career choices would be limited to that one field that I worked on.
I'm a fairly recent college grad (about 3 years ago) and I know what you mean. I constantly was bringing up the fact that their job posting said it required 5 years experience, when it didn't. I kept pointing out "I don't even have these qualifications and I already work here"
My next job I got hired into a position (although not entry level) that asked for at least 5 years of experience.
Lots of those jobs that "require" experience don't, or you can fudge it by talking about experience you had in college or something. I have no idea why HR departments do that.
Generally, (based on conversations about this with HR people) the point is to filter out applicants who don't have any experience at all.
They expect people with experience sufficient for the entry-level nature of the position to contact them or include in their cover letter a statement which points out that they lack the arbitrary 5 years but otherwise have X, Y, and Z sufficient to do the job.
For example: most federal agencies required 5 years of experience for legal positions for entry-level legal positions, but frequently hired graduating law students for these same positions (at least until the hiring freezes in 2009 and 2010). To put this in perspective: 5 years is usually the standard experience required for a lawyer to seek certification for a speciality in an area of law...
You can learn computer science, programming, physics, chemistry, english, psychology and more...in your own home. You don't need a B.A. or a B.S. for that.
You cannot learn the skills companies like Siemens are offering like that, definitely not in a way that would get you a job.
Closest to it is how my dad got started, by tinkering with motorcycles in his youth and eventually getting a start in manufacturing, but it was a really really long time before he got a decent job.
You can learn computer science, programming, physics, chemistry, english, psychology and more...in your own home. You don't need a B.A. or a B.S. for that.
I'll disagree when it comes to chemistry and physics. If you are going to be doing either of these in anything above the 200-level classes you are going to need resources you can only get in two places - universities and private/gov't institutions.
Besides that, there is a wealth of knowledge at universities that you can't get from a lot of books. And what if you don't comprehend something? You're paying someone to help you understand.
You don't know what you don't know. You may think you know computer science, but you could be missing critical parts. That's what formal courses are for.
Try asking a book a question. Even so, text books cost a butt load. Might as well be a part of a college when you can ask profs even after walking out the door.
If I did an apprenticeship, I feel like my career choices would be limited to that one field that I worked on.