It kind of depends on how you define "history". Before STEM dominated the hiring landscape, Universities were less career focused. Nobody in these fields, as far as I know, has ever offered apprenticeships to teach you chemical engineering or applied mathematics from the ground up. University will not prepare you for a corporate job, exactly, but it gives you a background that lets you step into that, or go into research, etc. Lots of employers expect new hires to have research skills as well.

I think there are a number of ways in which financial incentives and University culture are misaligned with this reality.