How does making sex work legal help a 40 year old with no skills or job experience?

Decriminalizing sex work is much more effective at reducing crime on the sex workers.

If you don't believe me, look into the Netherlands.

They have a huge problem with sex trafficking because it's legal to sell sex there.

It doesn't protect anyone. It encourages sex trafficking and pimping. Especially for foreign victims and young girls.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_trafficking_in_the_Netherlands

In 2017, it was estimated by the Dutch National Rapporteur on Trafficking in Human Beings and Sexual Violence against Children that more than 6,000 people in the Netherlands fall victim to human trafficking each year.[6][7] Two thirds of the people trafficked, about 4,000 people per year, fall victim to sexual slavery and abuse.[6] This group consisted largely of Dutch women, including minors (1,320 girls each year) who were preyed upon by so-called "lover boys".[7] The other 2,000 victims of human trafficking were largely foreigners who were put to work by organized crime groups.[6]

https://humanityinaction.org/knowledge_detail/the-audacity-of-tolerance-a-critical-analysis-of-legalized-prostitution-in-amsterdams-red-light-district/

I know it sounds like legalizing it would help sex workers. But the reality is that it doesn't.

Objectification of bodies never leads to good ends.

https://eclj.org/geopolitics/eu/legal-prostitution-and-human-trafficking-in-the-netherlands?lng=en

How about instead we invest in free education and job training and pay people a living wage so that the dangerous sex work isn't their best option for survival.