Quitting my wagie office job and taking up a trade was the best thing I ever did and I encourage literally everybody to do the same thing. The notion that if you're smart you go to university/college and get a degree which lands you a job is literally University/College propaganda.

They're businesses whose income is students buying their products. You might as well be buying cartons of Coca Cola because there's a job offer printed on the inside of every 1000th lid.

Trades are so starved for even unskilled labour that I've seen people who I literally think had dementia almost make it to permanency. The pay is better. I didn't like my last employer so I cold-called the admin number of my current one and had a job within 2 weeks.

Trades are goated and nowhere near as hard as you'd think to pick up, even if you have zero experience on the tools.