Kim, the consequences for software failure almost never involve loss of life-- only loss of money. This is strikingly different from other engineering disciplines, such as the oft-quoted “bridge building” metaphor.
While I don’t think people should enter the work force unprepared, most of the nitty-gritty learning will be done on the job anyway. Military rigidity is wholly inappropriate for the fluid nature of software.
In software, you never stop learning how to learn. Some might argue that you have to run as fast as you can to merely stay in the same place…
http://blog.codinghorror.com/everything-you-know-will-be-obsolete-in-five-years/