20-05-2025
Trade classes are booming at this Wisconsin high school as students eye six-figure jobs
At Middleton High School in Wisconsin, shop class is back — and booming.
For three decades, Justin Zander has shaped both wood and minds.
"My goal is to teach them comfort and skills so they become comfortable with a few skills and those skills will be transferable from many different trades," Zander told CBS News.
The revival is fueled by the demand for tradespeople. With some top earners in blue-collar jobs like electricians and plumbers now making six-figure salaries, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, such positions are now considered gold-collar.
"It used to be kids were interested in it as a sideline. Now the kids are interested in it because it could lead to a good-paying job for the future," Zander said.
Middleton High School built a $90 million campus in 2022, putting trades in the spotlight. It's part of a larger trend embraced by 27 states that increased spending on technical education by an average of $182 million from 2012 to 2022, according to Advance CTE, a nonprofit that supports career technical education across the United States.
Aidan Down is among more than 75% of students at Middleton who take tech education classes.
"I think it's a pretty easy option to go into a trade job, especially if you have some experience in these classes," Aidan said.
Interest in trade schools has nearly doubled since 2017, according to market research firm Validated Insights, Inc. Meanwhile, university enrollment has declined slightly since the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Center for Education Statistics found.
"I think that's really important is showing kids even just from the get-go that college isn't the only option," said Thalia Madden, a senior taking building construction.
At Middleton, students can take woodworking, welding and robotics. Students are learning to program the same kind of industrial robots used in factories across the country.
Carlo Zwettler got his hands dirty in the same classrooms at Middleton. He landed a job right out of school at Zuern Building Products, putting the skills he learned directly to work.
"Shop classes helped a lot," Zwettler said.
Now working in the trades as a yard manager, he said he hears the same debate come up often: whether to go straight into the workforce or take on college debt.
"Oh yeah, we always give each other a bunch of crap about that," he said, laughing. "Like, you go into a four-year college, you're gonna lose all this money."
For Zander, his return on investment is introducing students to a profitable way of life he loves.
"I'm not opposed to having kids smiling when they leave the room," Zander said.
"There's nothing else," he added.
