Rebecca Picciotto at CNBC reports that 30 years ago, high school Shop Class seemed on track for extinction.  As school funding became a matter of standardized test scores in reading and math, the budget tightened for classes that taught wood-working and print-making.  From the 90s to the early 2010s, students took fewer credits in Shop Class - or as it is now called, Career Tech Education (CTE) - according to data from the National Center of Education Statistics.  Instead, the priority turned toward securing students spots in four-year degree programs.  But with more job openings in the Building Trades and more questions around the value of a four-year college degree, high schools are turning their attention back to equipping the next generation with hands-on technical skills.  In 2015, 125 CTE-related policies were approved across 39 states, according to the Association for Career and Technical Education - boosting funding for CTE programs was one of the top categories of those policies.

To Directly Access This Apprenticeship And Training Labor News Story, Go To: High school shop class is back—and it's here to fill the trade 'skills gap' (cnbc.com)