Nah trades is good money if you actually stay with it and progress on the education side of it to become a journeyman in your trade, which takes 4 years of school (altho I think it's only 3-6 months per "year") and thousands of hours of work experience to get. Being a lifetime low-level apprentice bitch or plug in the "trades" (construction, mining, etc.) has little job security and is a horrid life, but pretty sure Journeyman status bring a ton more job security. I guess getting those hours to get to Jman status can be tricky, but usually if you work hard for a company they will help you out. This is, at l east, how it works in Sask.
Going to a university and paying out the asshole can backfire a lot worse than following the trades, where as you are "learning" and developing in the trade you are also getting paid for your time. I'd suggest going into that class, even though it doesn't have the specific things you are looking for Kesler. I'm sure they can use their connects to look for something specific you want to do, or give you something broad enough that it could apply to the trade you do want to eventually get into. Those high school programs have pretty good connects with companies in the trades.
I don't know any of this as first-hand info but a lot of mybuddies are in the trades, who I went to high school with, and a vast majority of them (the ones who are now Journeymen and balling out of control in terms of money) did that 'trades class' thing when we were in grade 11/12.