Did she have a portfolio that went beyond school work? Coders are like artists you need a portfolio showing you can do shit without being told to.
As a developer who has hired dozens of developers, you definitely don't. It makes no difference, especially in this day and age of AI being able to make websites and programs with ease.
No, it's not. When people use the term "unskilled" for jobs it doesn't mean "you literally have to have zero skills, not even the ability to user your hands, to do it" - it means you only need a limited skill set and is a job that has minimal economic value. Essentially it's a job that anyone at any stage could walk into and be able to do with minimal training.
That has always been how the skilled/unskilled labor gap has been broken up. You might not like it, but that's what it means. There is nothing about a server's role that makes it a "skilled" job that requires highly specialized skills that someone would have to go and get qualifications and study for. It's taking orders and carrying the orders out to people when someone else, often a skilled laborer like a chef for example, prepares them. Asking for drink orders and if everything is ok with the meal is not "skilled labor".
Agreed 100%. Unfortunately COVID (and everything since, like the "renewable energy" push) and most countries' governments absolutely moronic handling of it has completely destroyed any hopes of this. Getting everyone from minimum wage workers upwards to be able to afford to "live comfortably" requires either a massive, massive recession with 50%+ deflation, or.........well there's really no other way. Maybe a UBI, and I wish more places would trial it, but apart from that there is no real solution that anyone has been able to suggest.