Thirty years ago, high school shop class seemed on track for extinction. And during the 2016-2017 school year, 98% of public school districts offered CTE to high school students, though the types of programs varied widely, according to the Department of Education. Here are two key problems in the workforce that high school CTE seeks to address:Expensive college degreesCollege was the primary postgrad pathway modeled at Rosalyn Jones' high school in New Jersey. "Definitely in high school, they pushed college first like it's kind of the only option," says Jones, 25, who attended high school from 2012 to 2016. She says her high school offered a woodshop class as a course, but she says there was no CTE requirement.

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Persons: Nolan Brunn, CTE, Rosalyn Jones, Jones, Tyler Sasse Organizations: Career Tech, National Center of Education Statistics, Association for Career, Department of Education, Corps, Job Corps, The, of Public, Grant Universities, Western Welding Academy Locations: New Jersey, Anoka , Minnesota, Brunn, Wyoming