A high-school welding teacher in Louisiana says students need to think about more than the trade -- they need a plan for the future. Chris Henning says he asks students pointed questions while exploring the costs associated with housing, car insurance and other bills, along with average salaries they can earn in welding or another skilled trade.

Middle-school students attending Valour SkillZ Camp learned how to fix a flat bicycle tire, build and fly a drone and repair a lawnmower. Camp founder and Judson Middle School assistant principal Danny Stanley says the idea was to introduce students to area mentors while teaching them valuable life skills.

A Tennessee school district is moving forward with constructing an FFA Barn on a high-school campus. Ray Lecomte, the district's career and technical education coordinator, says the facility will support agriculture education and prepare students for careers in the industry.

Three groups in Oakland County, Mich., are offering a 14-week certification program in robotics technicians and programmable logic controllers. "The goal of the program is to get people up-skilled and then out working in the industry," says Kristen Charlton, program manager at Oakland Community College.

Undergraduate students at Georgia Highlands College in Rome, Ga., will be able to major in building information modeling and virtual design and construction beginning in the spring. The college will join Purdue University in Indiana as one of the few schools with such a program.

Photos show construction of Tesla's massive car factory near Austin, Texas, is nearing completion. Tesla plans to begin production this year of an SUV at the $1.1 billion Gigafactory, with the beta phase for a pickup to follow.

More than half of manufacturing workers under age 25 said they stayed with their employers because of training and career opportunities in a recent Manufacturing Institute's Center for Manufacturing Research survey. Offering career development may help manufacturers combat the "image problem" that turns off some young workers, writes Kathryn Moody.

Pet food ingredient prices have risen by as much as 20% since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the Pet Food Institute, with shortages in edible oils and workers at food makers -- all of which has left some humans unable to find preferred foods and treats for their pets. The South Shore Pet Food Pantry near Boston has been making more frequent updates to its food wish list so donors have alternatives for sold-out products, says the animal charity's co-founder Kristen Clancy.

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Our next innovations series webinar, Driving Student Ownership in the Classroom Through Entrepreneurship, Teamwork and Cross-curricular Collaboration, happens Aug. 3 at 2 p.m. ET and discusses the process through which classroom environments can be designed to put students in charge of the classroom and how it gives them ownership of the outcomes of their learning experience. Register for this free webinar.