They literally taught sewing, cooking, balancing a checkbook and budgeting, child care, basic auto mechanics, and some welding iirc. These are all super useful life skills and the sad part is that all of us brilliant geniuses that went on to college never got the equivalent covered.
Planning on buying a cheap welder soon and teaching myself how to weld in the next 6 months (at age 50).
Without a license, you can learn to safely change capacitors, contactors, 24v transformers, and thermostats.
I have also done an oil change in the parking lot of a local auto parts store, and they were totally cool with it.
$140/day seems steep but kudos for taking the initiative.
Doing work in the parking lot of an auto parts store is very normal.
They have a special rate for oil changes, $40. But you only get an hour on the lift. Just enough time to refill, replace filters, and rotate tires.
As a broke college student DIY auto repair was a great way to save money. As someone with a job, it's more of a hobby.
But learning how to fix a basic machine is an amazing lesson in design: you see how mature technology is made to be maintainable, which isn't something you get from a lot of modern electronics.
Shop and welding was long gone by the early 2000s but my school had a big greenhouse so I took Horticulture.
A good friend of mine, who later went to the NFL, was so excited he learned to bake cookies. He also learned to read the stocks section and was super excited to try investing.
* He's doing quite well now. Football paid for college, NFL paid for law school.
It was considered a bit advanced that some boys took it don't think girls shop classes.