It is de facto vocational school, though, since the demand for jobs generally outstrips the demand for labor and employers decided university credentials were indicative of what they were looking for.
No, the worst is when you get to talk with people fresh out of college who "know" all the latest industry hype but still can't put basic programs together, lack basic problem solving skill and basic algorithmic thinking.
Sure, teach them some practical get-a-job stuff, but also teach them how to learn, how to solve problems, the different tools (functional, OO, logic, low-level etc) available and make sure they can solve real problems on their own.