Actually companies stopped investing in workers and outsourced education to colleges because the US courts ruled that aptitude tests (the means by which compani

Actually companies stopped investing in workers and outsourced education to colleges because the US courts ruled that aptitude tests (the means by which companies formerly would select people for jobs without requiring college degrees) were racist. While not banning them per se, the decisions made it such that suddenly, businesses could now be held liable if the test produced 'discriminatory' outcomes. This is the case: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griggs_v._Duke_Power_Co https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griggs_v._Duke_Power_Co. Since then (whether you agree with the ruling or not), companies have been reticent to use aptitude tests. Instead they outsource selection to colleges, which conveniently do the exact same thing as the SC was trying to end. Except now, the companies can foist the cost of training onto the employee, since the expectation was no longer that you could get a job out of high school and learn on the job. Unfortunately, the case IMO has had deleterious effects. It should have been expected, given the racial dynamics of the time, that any aptitude test may have produced unequal results. However, the proper response is the government improving the education system so that these disparities disappeared, rather than making them illegal. As this article itself states, if an equal mathematics aptitude test were run today by a company seeking to train up engineers and other STEM-inclined workers, then we would expect the test to produce racially disparate results (because according to the article Asian and white parents, who are better off, invested in private tutors for their children). No company will do this test then, because it will certainly be found to be discriminatory once they get the results back, and suddenly they're potentially on the hook for millions. Thus, companies instead outsource the selection to colleges who suddenly manage to whitewash the fact that the graduates of their STEM programs are disproportionately asian (and to a lesser extent, white). But this is why apprenticeships are all but impossible in the US. Without the college degree to exculpate you, you will be certainly be found to have discriminatory hiring practices if you are picky with your entrants.