Here's your money briefing for Thursday, March 6.

I'm Mariana Aspuru for the Wall Street Journal.

Driven by rising costs of higher education and a tough job market for white-collar workers,

high schools are investing in the hands-on wood, metal, and machinery skills learned in shop classes.

Economic downturn or not, AI or not, you're going to need someone who's going to fix your toilet,

you're going to need somebody who's going to repair your air conditioning unit. And so there's a sense that these are

jobs that are always going to be there. We'll talk with Wall Street Journal reporter to Ping Chen

about how these cutting-edge classes are helping students get a jumpstart on lucrative old-school

careers. That's after the break.

School districts across the country are spending millions of dollars to expand and revamp high school shop classes.

Wall Street Journal reporter Tipping Chen joins me.

Tipping, did you take shop classes in high school?

I know I didn't.

I didn't.

It wasn't offered.

No, it wasn't even like part of our roster at all.

But I always thought I would take it when I was in high school.

What kinds of skills are offered during shop classes?

It can really run the gamut, but a lot of it is working with tools, ranging from learning how to build a birdhouse to something more advanced, learning how to work with different

kinds of machining tools, programming different machine tools,

really all over the map. And what kinds of careers do these skills lead to?

Could lead to a career in construction, Korean manufacturing, automotive, depends on the kinds of

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