This is something that I struggle with personally. I'm a junior dev and a part time student. I got the development job after working desktop support at the same company. My technical experience is entirely self taught. I only started going to school because my manager felt that I should receive a formal education as most of the senior devs have.
My issues with it are the cost and the level of education I'm receiving. To give everyone an example, my first database class taught MS Excel and moved to MS Access. This is from a college that is charging me thousands of dollars a year. While at work, I've developed multiple enterprise applications and setup entire SQL Server environments. I feel like I'm receiving way more training from work than from school. This is supported by the extremely positive reviews I've received from senior devs and my manager. And when I say cost of school, it isn't just the amount that I pay out of pocket. It's the time as well. I spend about 16 hours in class each week during business hours. Another 10 to 12 hours at home is spent doing homework or studying. An entire day is spent each week dedicated to school while working 40 hours a week. This makes for a pretty stressful situation. I'm on the edge of breaking down, but I make great money so I feel like I can't complain.
And yes, I know this is very specific to my situation. I could have chosen not to get a full time job and just gone to school instead. However, that would mean giving up starting a career early, which I think is much more valuable. If I can get a job without any education, the experience I have seems to be more valuable than the education. This leads me to believe that I should spend that 20+ hours learning independently instead of going to school. I'd save money that way, time, stress, and I'd likely be at a higher technical level than school has brought me to.
I know this comment doesn't help you out very much. I just wanted to share my situation as someone in the position that your son may be in the future. If I would have known how much I would have learned from work, I would have chosen not to go back to school. The only thing keeping me from stopping is that the senior devs have degrees in higher education and, though most of them are twice my age, I feel like I should keep up with them. Each of them is extremely supportive of both my work and school and I feel like dropping out would be letting them down.
My issues with it are the cost and the level of education I'm receiving. To give everyone an example, my first database class taught MS Excel and moved to MS Access. This is from a college that is charging me thousands of dollars a year. While at work, I've developed multiple enterprise applications and setup entire SQL Server environments. I feel like I'm receiving way more training from work than from school. This is supported by the extremely positive reviews I've received from senior devs and my manager. And when I say cost of school, it isn't just the amount that I pay out of pocket. It's the time as well. I spend about 16 hours in class each week during business hours. Another 10 to 12 hours at home is spent doing homework or studying. An entire day is spent each week dedicated to school while working 40 hours a week. This makes for a pretty stressful situation. I'm on the edge of breaking down, but I make great money so I feel like I can't complain.
And yes, I know this is very specific to my situation. I could have chosen not to get a full time job and just gone to school instead. However, that would mean giving up starting a career early, which I think is much more valuable. If I can get a job without any education, the experience I have seems to be more valuable than the education. This leads me to believe that I should spend that 20+ hours learning independently instead of going to school. I'd save money that way, time, stress, and I'd likely be at a higher technical level than school has brought me to.
I know this comment doesn't help you out very much. I just wanted to share my situation as someone in the position that your son may be in the future. If I would have known how much I would have learned from work, I would have chosen not to go back to school. The only thing keeping me from stopping is that the senior devs have degrees in higher education and, though most of them are twice my age, I feel like I should keep up with them. Each of them is extremely supportive of both my work and school and I feel like dropping out would be letting them down.