I'm on a middle ground. I wasn't fully trained for a another trade or for anything. I went to the University of Ottawa for two years, and I hated every minute I was there, so I went another route and shopped around, working wherever it was. I recently discovered that my dad giving me the job offer was an attempt to scare me back into university, but I tried it and I liked it. It backfired. It was six of one, half dozen of the other.
I have to agree that there's a big problem with the secondary education system and the stigma that lies between colleges and universities. For example, when I said to my boyfriend's cousin, “Oh, you got into college”, his mother just jumped all over me saying, “No, he got into university.”
It's a post-secondary program. I graduated from high school in 2005, and the stigma I understand is still there to this day, eight years later: smart kids go to university, stupid kids go to college. If I were to show any of you the math that I have to do, or the science.... I could teach you the physics of air. I know that. I can design a duct system. Stupid people can't do that.
There's a lot in every trade that everybody needs to do. There are people who need a lot of help math-wise, science-wise, English-wise, or with everything. We learn differently or we excel in different fields, but these stigmas override that. It really does need to be addressed, because it is a wonderful opportunity, a wonderful trade. Everyone I know who's in it isn't regretting that they're in it. They're in it because they love it.