Pee is right. This is generic to any industry and it is in part because of the inability in industry to attach a value to experience (scars & T-shirts) to be able to compete with the perceived value of a tertiary qualification and pay people accordingly.
I've thought about this constantly. I'm 60 next year and as most of you know I'm a fuels guy. The graduates that I mentor know nothing. I mean, really nothing. They know how to work ten varieties of smart phone etc. but I cant teach them..even the bright and willing ones, because there is no operating experience, no context, to anchor anything into. We have our own children of the magenta line too...
They say "you make it look so easy". Maybe, but I've been there on live plant when the panel alarms have gone off and I've sh*t myself wondering what the hell was going on. That's how you learn, and learn to think predictively and its also how you generalize to other situations that helps you cope when it hits the fan.
Fenland said it all: get your stripes first.