You are quite correct on all your points and I agree with you.
I suppose I could have expressed my idea better. What I meant is that for people with a programming aptitude there are no barriers these days. Whether they want to jump directly into software engineering or pursue another field and use their knowledge of programming as an asset, for the both choices the road is open. There are tons of information freely available for those who wish to learn. If one wanted to get an official CS degree it's also easily arranged, university chairs of that specialization are under-filled. At least that is so in Europe. For some reason the locals prefer economic/legal/business degrees and engineering isn't terribly popular. Can't say anything about the situation in the US though.
I suppose I could have expressed my idea better. What I meant is that for people with a programming aptitude there are no barriers these days. Whether they want to jump directly into software engineering or pursue another field and use their knowledge of programming as an asset, for the both choices the road is open. There are tons of information freely available for those who wish to learn. If one wanted to get an official CS degree it's also easily arranged, university chairs of that specialization are under-filled. At least that is so in Europe. For some reason the locals prefer economic/legal/business degrees and engineering isn't terribly popular. Can't say anything about the situation in the US though.