"Most of them didn't know the folk clubs as they were, and the performers among them are now arriving via the route of degree course~CD~'Young Folk Award' and expect to have a ready-made career in concerts and festivals, bypassing the taditional club apprenticeship."

They don't know the Folk Clubs as they were because those clubs don't exist anymore. You can't do an apprenticeship in something that isn't there. Given the comments made elsewhere about the problems of getting FC gigs why go down that route?

The graduates from a degree course can expect to have £20,000 of student debt (as can any graduate). I wouldn't want to try and pay that off on folk club fees.

Steve