Students, hobbyists, and amateurs in general can do very fine work. I've seen as much of it from amateurs as from professionals, and, of course, I've been forced to deal with the CRAP that some profesisonals turn out a disproportionate part of the time.

If an average guy wants to put in a second bathroom in his house, I imagine he looks around to see what resources he has available that might fit the task before he goes out and buys materials. The same is true of a hobbyist or student. Often resource limitations or component availability will completely distort the shape of the desired end product. SOme people will never attempt to re-use a bent nail, while others absolutely have to.

I've seen plenty of second-rate high-volume circuit boards, built with the latest technology and costing lots of money. I've got a pile of them that I occasionally look at or even use to scavenge a cap or resistor.

People learn by making mistakes. They don't learn much, at least the average ones, from teachers or books. They learn which end of the soldering iron should be touched in the "usual" way. They learn to believe the datasheet when something doesn't work the way they guessed. They learn which components work together, and why, from making mistakes. I'd let 'em.

RE