I know quite a few CAD designers working in the energy/petrochem industry that make over $100k in a bad year and over $250k in a very good year, lots of overtime. Many of these are without a college degree but all have levels of technical training post High School.
Your typical welder,pipefitter,instrument tech,electrician,heavy equipment operator,boiler maker,machinest,milright and many other construction or maintenance hands routinely make $60 K without overtime.A welder that owns his own rig will make over a 100K.Plumbers around 80K. Yet how many students in HS are informed of this? There is nothing wrong in telling the average student that maybe college isn’t for them.