There are plenty of different things one can learn at college. If one type of degree is not working, look for something that suits said person better. Or look for a professional school to teach them a craft.
My cleaning lady is doing very well for herself. She does not take any poor clients; most of those she is cleaning for are multimillionaires. They refer their friends. I was referred by a friend who is very well-heeled, and I believe I may be the woman's poorest client--judging by the other neighborhoods she works in, most are probably decamillionaires. I have read that diaper services are very lucrative. There is someone in my neighborhood picking up and delivering dry cleaning. People are busy, very busy. Anything creative you can do to get rid of their errands for them should work. A guy cleaned my windows and skylights inside and out (3100 sf house, scary hip roof, 2 story, 4 skylights, lots of windows) in about 3 hours for $300. If I had his equipment and I wanted to do that, I would not be washing my windows, I would be over in the decamillionaire neighborhood. The woman next door to me is running a small day care out of her home. She is renting and has been there for years so I know she must be making the rent off that business. Rent would be around $3500/mo for her house, which is maybe 2700 sf. There are two Teslas in her garage. One of my friends retired about 5 years ago, got a real estate license, and is now making more money than he did at his 6-figure former day job as an engineer. He has a sparkling personality, which may help. Not everyone is good at that. I recently went to a massage therapist (she only does medical massage for painful conditions). She charged $165/hr, cash only (the going rate is around $80 here for most massage therapists). She took a month to get into so I know she's full. Yes, she was extraordinarily good, and yes, I'm sure it took some years for her to build up a rep, make connections in the community, and get the experience. FWIW, I also have a friend in massage school, a 6-month, $10,000 investment. I have no idea whether that's a typical price or time frame. None of these things (with the possible exception of a day care) require one to have employees, which complicate a business greatly.
All are exceptionally sensitive to the economy though. That's the curse of high paid blue collar self employment, you really have to average it out an entire economic cycle which means averaging some zeros in there. I bought a boat from one of these folks for a song in 2008, they made the mistake of taking their highest paying year and living like that was their salary. You gotta put half of it away in good times and sucks if you're just starting out on a downturn.
The question is always: whose economy? Back in the depths of the financial crisis with 10% to 11% unemployment in the US, the unemployment rate among white-collar workers with graduate degrees remained less than 4%. If your customers are well heeled, you do not have to worry so much about the economy. You might be living paycheck to paycheck, but they aren't. Personally, being among the white collars with graduate degrees, neither of the jobs I held through that period was really in jeopardy. I did not fire my housecleaner or gardener: those people saved me much time and energy that I could devote to my work instead. When your job is paying you more per hour than you are paying the people who help you, you retain those people. Many of the decamillionaires I referred to in my previous post are business owners or tech industry upper management or owners. Maybe they stop making large donations or choose a less pricey private school for their kids. But they don't stop paying their gardener $200/mo. It's chump change. And believe me, they are not going to clean their own 10,000 sf house.
That all makes sense but in practice even the very wealthy cut back on spending during recessions. Just take a look at second home, high end home, yacht or private jet sales. Does that filter down to their service jobs? Maybe not for primary homes and jobs. Probably for second homes and more discretionary things.
If you can detect early on that your kid is going to be a moron, put a superman outfit on him, take him to the Grand Canyon and throw him off.
My son wants to become a doctor, so after school, he wants to go to a medical University. There are some professions that require higher education. Of course, if you have extra money and you want to become a big boss, then you may not go to college, and start your business immediately after school graduation. But not everyone can be a big boss, so many people have to learn to become professionals in their business. And if no one goes to college, I'm afraid to think about what the future holds for us. So we are already looking for good places for internships that my son must complete after graduating from University. There are good options here city-internships.com, if you have any recommendations on this topic, please share them with us.
Outsource web development is the best way out. Offshore development costs less, there are more engineers accessible anytime you need them.