What America needs are institutions similar to that of the apprenticeship programs of Western Europe. I came out of a one year job training program operating out of a non-profit with corporate partners (similar to the way it works in parts of the EU) that consists of college credit classes and industry experience. This lowers the barrier to entry for most young adults (like myself) to get into the job market and jump-start a career without going into debt.<p>After three years of graduating this program, I&#x27;ve now gone full circle working for a startup that supports the process of grant-making for foundations. That all being said, I recently put my income into fusion.net&#x27;s millennial wage gap calculator to find that I come out into the top 6% of my generational cohort at a gross wage of 72k (at 23, I realize I&#x27;m an outlier). When I take into account that the majority of my friends around my are are still working service&#x2F;retail jobs, I feel like something in our system needs to change before we experience a reckoning with a generation of kids with dead-end jobs.