Anyone can read a book. You can borrow them for free if you have a library card. And I live with and around people from other cultures and other countries out in the world. You don't have to pay anyone for that. Just go live somewhere diverse and take time to meet your neighbors. It's basically free since you have to pay rent somewhere anyway. 
Narrow-focus apprenticeships are fine as long as they are not tracking, a form of de-facto segregation by race and class. There are smart kids who will benefit from higher education from all classes and races. To get there, first we need to make desegregating schools a SERIOUS progressive goal. If you have kids, you can start by making sure they attend integrated public schools. Most white liberals don't do this. Hmmm, wonder why?
And then eliminate child poverty. Because kids who are hungry and sick are not going to benefit from even the best educational plan.
And once you have those basics figured out, then encourage kids to love learning and then make college cheap or free for anyone who can hit a fairly high level of achievement. And not for the rest. Because, for many people, it is a bad investment of time and money. And also, encouraging kids to spend 60k for a half assed communications degree when what they really want to do is binge drink is wrong. They can work and go to CC until they figure it out for much less.
BTW, it is the height of arrogance to think that people with college educations are intrinsically smarter or better than blue collar peeps. If you think that, if might be that you just don't know many.
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