I think the kind of money a national fund could command would be well invested in trade schools as well as academic. A dignified way out of poverty is becoming a skilled tradesman. There are also lots of opportunities to partner with other institutions for apprenticing/cadetships nurses and midwives, teachers, social workers, engineers etc that would benefit from more hands on experience alongside skilled practitioners instead of pointless academic nonsense not core to the knowledge of the actual profession and world give greater opportunities to kids who might make excellent practitioners but don’t thrive in traditional education academics.