^ That's a good point, but in my own experience, apprenticeships are offered at the end of year 10 (15 years old in QLD) and it's quite rare for a person to be offered a chance at a trade after that - purely because it's cheaper to employ a 15-year-old over an 18-year-old, and there's no point in wasting two years of potential training if you have no intention of going to uni. Obviously these systems differ from state to state, but most of my school friends found it really hard to obtain an apprenticeship in their chosen field after completing senior schooling, whereas the ones who quit at the end of grade 10 to learn a trade are now qualified and earning good money