What if they were guaranteed that, upon successful completion of the their program, all of the fees for their coursework would be forgiven? I would like to think that sort of idea would be the push that many young people need to pursue these kinds of degrees. Who would pay, then, for their education? Well, if it's so important to these companies, I would think that they would sponsor this type of program. After all, they are the ones who would most benefit from having these people trained. In fact, if it's important to the U.S. as a whole, one would think that the government could even help out a bit.
Granted, this sort of thing didn't work for me. I had been nearly guaranteed a full ride, plus a spending allowance, if I entered the petroleum or mineral engineering programs at UAF. Instead I chose to go into debt as I pursued my degree in English (not quite a lucrative of a field). To me, the jobs I was looking at were more of a concern than the money I could make from them. (I do occasionally want to travel back in time and smack my past self ... but only occasionally).
Maybe this idea wouldn't work for everyone, but there is something about having a direct financial incentive (rather than a less-definite incentive of maybe getting a high paying job) that could make people more willing to work hard at earning these degrees. Actually, I wonder if a system like this could even work with pre-collegiate programs ...