I have 36 years old and I wonder how the people some years ago were getting new daily knowledge without Internet and all the technology that we have really close an easy to consume. The knowledge is near to everyone.
With a internet connection you have access to basic and advanced content from all the human sciences, sometimes I am watching a movie and I want to know for example the country where is located a beautiful city and I just need to say 'Hey Google, tell me where is located Heidelberg' and get a clear answer in seconds: In Germany.
My father died when I was only nineteen years old, in thar moment I needed to stop my University, I had to work then to supply all the required for my family, In that moment I was very smart fixing computers, installing programs, reinstalling Windows, physical cleaning and that kind of things and I found that when I had a doubt, Internet was always there to my help, someone else in the world had the same issue or problem like me, and with that sometimes I was able to get a solution or more information to solve my customers incidents. In few years I was working also in Web Development, also learning the required from the Internet, I remember that I read an entire pdf about HTML, PHP, JavaScript and after that jQuery, I did my first learning about servers getting a new one to host my customers web page, I also tried Adobe Flash in these days.
The point was that I was from a poor family, and I found a way to improve my knowledge from my own need of every day. 5 years later my skills were respected and promoted by many people, and then, from an important company I got an employment offer, the offers was good for me, with a son and a family to help that way was really good for me, then I accepted. With an stable salary and resources I finished my University, just as a tribute to my father, when I got the pregrade as system engineer, my salary was equal or a little beyond from an specialist.
Many people today think that the only way to learn something is going to a University, and I think that some years ago, without technology may be that was true, because the knowledge in that moment really was inside the buildings, into a library or in the teacher's mind and experts in the companies. But today, the knowledge is everywhere and thanks to the internet is shared to all the world, you can learn from many topics, from many people, from many countries.
If the knowledge is everywhere and for everyone, it's right to say that in some cases University titles and diplomas are not proof of knowledge, as with languages, you can know Spanish, English or Chinese if you have dedication to learn the basis and you can get friends to practice and improve. The companies needs the best talent and they are understanding that the best talent is not the persons with more titles, for that reason most companies are evaluating the real skills with several tests and giving salaries depending of the person real skills, really that is the value.