California Advancing Pathways for Students students learn residential construction skills in a summer program in Los Angeles County. Too many high students still don’t have meaningful exposure to career pathways in the skilled trades. The AI era only makes modern skilled trades education more urgent. The NORC survey found high school students who have taken skilled trades classes report stronger connections to school and greater confidence about their future, even if they don’t enter the trades. The high school students who will build, repair, power, and maintain the country’s future are sitting in classrooms right now.