I don't think I have ever used any of the stuff I was formally taught at university, or for that matter in the sixth form, in the course of earning a living.

What matters are some of the skills you pick up along the way. And the main value of those are likely to be for what you do in between earning a living, which are likely to be the most important things.

The idea that university is primarily about producing people who will be more equipped to work more productively (or whatever) strikes me both as wrongheaded and naive. Unfortunately we seem to have reached a situation where a degree is seen as a necessary label people have to carry in order to get an increasing range of jobs which they could do just as well without a degree. But in order to get that label young people are required to saddle themselves with an enormous debt.