haha
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
If I had children, I would definitely encourage them to take a look at the trades. Yes, it's a bit depressed now but the bottom line is that it's hard to outsource the fixing of leaky pipes to India, to send your car to China to have its transmission overhauled or build a local bridge in Singapore.
Not to mention that you won't enter "the real world" with $100,000 in student loan debt.
My Dad tried to encourage me in this direction, and short of becoming a hedge fund manager it would have been a pretty good idea. Even better idea today, as you point out because of the much more expensive education and loans, coupled with a more difficult post graduation job market.
I have a niece who graduated from an acclaimed journalism program, near the top of her class. Four years later her most high paying job opportuity has been managing a dry cleaning store and struggling to keep up with her loans. I wouldn't doubt that this might be her destination career, though she is very clever and hard working and she will undoubtedly get better positions as she goes along.
Ha