They used to teach basic trade skills when I went to school, but due to lack of funding, these have been cut in a lot of public schools, as have the arts.
"tech" was one of my favourite classes. Got to learn how to do basic woodwork, metal work, welding. It was fun and useful.
Most of them would not pay attention, had little interest in learning anything and had the worst manners. It was all I could do to contain the military man in me.
:)
My daughter said to me the other day, "you could be a school teacher" until I reminded her of how patient I am with stupid.
It was one of my favorites too. I wasn't very good at it, but like you said, learned a lot of useful skills. We even had some basic Electricity and Electronics classes and those were my favorites.