Here's the problem now; the system you train under is so dumbed down due to falling education standards over decades that anyone coming through that route simply doesn't cut the mustard anymore.
Lets go back to how it used to be, you had to have high achievement in maths and physics just to do a bog standard Electrical course and Pass rates were low too, think only 40% of our class made it through. It was tough and because of this the industry knew it and it was reflected in good wages and respect. What you did in them days because you were better educated is work direct into Industrial as an apprentice or join a firm that spanned the different sectors.
Now I started college and was already an A grade in maths and Physics, I left college with some of the highest results you could acheive, my passes in on papers were with distinctions where possible, I suppose I was a bit of a swat at school and did enjoy Maths and Physics hence it wasn't a hard migration for me but don't get me wrong; it was still tough.
In them days when you did college and the advanced C module I think it was for design etc you could virtually walk into any key area of the Industry and just be watched over for a few yrs until experience took over.
As for the system nowadays - well I would love to take on an Apprentice in the near future but education level are at an all time low and the system is so broken up and dumbed down that taking anyone on would be a liability and a waste of my time and effort - trust me I've had about 12 apprentices over the years and witnessed first hand the slow return to neanderthal thinking.
As for answers - well I don't know their is no quick fix for this one, you can't even ship skilled immigration in as this sector has a shortage even outsourcing it, but if you are a cut above the rest in your mental skills best get with a firm that bridges both domestic and industrial and spend the first 5years just picking up experience and any spare time you have at home you cram the internet reviewing old and new technology because for the last 20yrs that what I have to do and to this day I'm still getting home looking for solutions to problems and products to repair old technology, it not a job its a commitment that will eat into a lot of your own time but if you have drive, the balls and consider yourself hungry for knowledge then the Industrial sector will make you a wich wich man.
Just to remind the modern day school leaver the difference here in our education and yours, by the age of 12 we had to be able to recite upto our 15times table without the aid of a calculator and when we left for break the teacher would ask a random sum within that area and if you get it using just your head you got your break, if not you spent your break writing out that particular set of tables.
Just to reflect, we had an apprentice who couldn't even do his 3 times table as an adult who had left school without a calculator, he passed his college and this is when I know the Industry was heading for a disaster and that was 15yrs ago.