That's not a bad deal. I wish someone would have grabbed my dumb ass when i was 18 and sent me to trade school or into the Air Force or something so I could have learned a worthwhile skill and how to handle a grown-up job right out of the gate instead of fckng around in Ann Arbor smoking pot and drinking for a few years.
If you don't make the grade for college, you're sent to trade school or an apprenticeship program instead of high school.
I still remember kids (high school age) on a scaffold eating a sandwich and a flip top beer. Masonry or brick laying was big back then.