I graduated in ‘64. There were a lot of young men/boys in my school who did not graduate. It was because they went through the trade school program, and got good jobs in the field of their choice.
NYC has a similar program — though the “trades” are in the fields of hospitality, fashion, theater, etc. etc. The graduation rates are much higher than in typical high schools.
Boy Do we need more of this. Not every kid needs to be college prepped.
If you can weld I could get you 30.00 Plus an hour an more OT than you could handle. It certainly dosn't take 4 yrs. and tens of thousands to teach a kid these crafts. I work with a machinist and a fitter that made 126k and 145K respecively last year