(MONEY Magazine) – Six in 10 U.S. high school students prepare to attend college, while the rest lay the foundations for nothing in particular and too often wind up in low- pay, low-status jobs. Many European nations avoid this waste of human potential by channeling students who aren't headed to college into apprenticeships after the ninth grade. In Denmark, for example, about a third of students attend college-prep high schools called gymnasiums starting in the 10th grade, but the others (including the teen profiled at right) enter commercial or technical schools that train them to become bank tellers, bookkeepers, clerical workers, toolmakers and the like. In the U.S., critics complain that training programs slot kids into lower-paying careers without giving them the opportunity to make more of themselves. However, that's simply not true in Denmark, where vocational students continue to take liberal arts courses and can get back on the college track if they wish. President Clinton, who created a European-style youth apprenticeship program as governor back in Arkansas, now proposes to spend $1.2 billion over four years on high school apprenticeships nationwide. If Congress approves, the plan could initiate a sea change in U.S. job training. Our training now focuses on older, laid-off workers and welfare recipients rather than on teenagers; as a result, only 3% of high school graduates serve apprenticeships and a minuscule 0.08% of students do so while still in school. Under the Danish model, a typical technical course lasts four years -- 80 weeks of classwork and 128 weeks of on-the-job training at private companies. Employers pay apprentices only 30% to 50% of what skilled workers make and are partially reimbursed from funds contributed to by all companies. Net cost to employers: an average of $8,900 per apprentice a year. At that price, it would cost about $26.6 billion a year to create apprenticeships for our 3 million 10th-, 11th- and 12th-graders who aren't college-bound. At its best, the Danish system pushes such students to work hard so that they can step into skilled jobs. At worst, it provides cheap labor to employers. Of course, apprenticeships aren't a cure-all for the blue-collar blues. Denmark's unemployment rate is 12%, compared with Europe's 9.8%, and employers are creating only 35,000 full apprenticeships a year -- forcing some 10,000 kids either to accept shorter training programs or to get their vocational training in the classroom. Still, enlightened educators and employers note that some kind of program inspired by the Danes would be a vast improvement over our current system, which leaves so many high school graduates floundering.

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE CREDIT: DANISH MINISTRAY OF EDUCATION, JOBS FOR THE FUTURE PERCENTAGE OF HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES WHO SERVE APPRENTICESHIPS: DENMARK 50% U.S. 3%