Interesting subject. Some random thoughts. (Stated as fact, though, it's really just my opinion.)
1. Liberal education, as Mortimer Adler says, in "The Paedaiea Proposal" concerns A-vocation which is the opposite of vocation. It's more about making the mind beautiful than about giving people skills.
2. In general, we expect nearly everyone to go to college. In fact, they really need to in order to get jobs. Not that they *really* need it, but that stated job requirements often don't have anything to do with the real demands of the job.
3. My memories of shop are nightmares. I intensely hated my shop teachers - who just happened to be the P.E. teachers. I was never able to complete projects, b/c the bullies would take my stuff throughout the entire class and hide it. I never finished a project - no matter how simple - not one. This is unfortunate, b/c I think it would be a very good skill to have. I can do simple things - things that I can deduce from logic - and I have a number of friends and family who are very good at this sort of thing.
4. I also think it should be available to girls. And both boys and girls should know the basics of cooking. I've wondered for some time now about the viability of, not a single course, but a series of related courses on modern living. Six weeks of shop, 6 of home repair (install light switches and bathroom tiles, e.g.), 6 of auto maintenance, 6 of home ec, 6 of checkbooks and budgets, 6 of family planning, 6 on voting (where, how to register), 6 weeks on volunteer work.
5. But before you suggest I'm being reasonable, I will say that I also think that bullies should be slowly and excrutiatingly tortured to death and their worthless "parents" be made to watch it. Then we start on the "teachers" who condoned it. (I'm quite serious. No hyberbole. I'm convinced mine is the only ethical solution and other opinions are based on spurious pseudo-ethics.)
6. The light at the end of the tunnel is that in very many technical areas, vocational training is on the rebound. Many employers look for certifications and some will even take them in lieu of college. The bad news is that unsavory people follow the money and there is no end of creeps who will give these poor people a piece of paper without sufficient training. (So employers look for standard certifications, like MCSE, etc.) So people can learn to build and program robots and assembly lines, fix computers, etc. There will almost certainly develop a cottage industry around training techs to fix fuel cell cars.
k
