That devalues the skills. When I was initially learning web development, I learned through online resources like YouTube. Then once I was competent enough, I wanted to start earning some pocket money with my newly acquired skills.

Thats actually pretty hard to do nowadays though, cause if you're freelancing online you're competing with devs from India who have years of professional experience charging very low amounts of money.

Not to mention Wix etc wiping out the demand for simple websites. The skill threshold to actually start supporting yourself through the skills you acquire is constantly rising, and the amount you make is less.

It makes it a hell of a lot harder to get a junior software dev job, or an internship. Once you increase the size of the pool, the value per person decreases.

I think there should be some kind of common apprenticeship program for software developers, maybe in high school onwards, that would help address people getting through the stages of learning skills -> supporting yourself with those skills.