Marcus,
I'm afraid that Engineering, has a similarly unglamorous image here in the state. I grew up outside of Detroit, centre of US auto manufacturing, and the area was dominated by light manufacturing, tool & die, etc. as part of the supply and suport chain. Several of my school buddies went in to ME and are still there.. but they were the exception.

Unlike software development, where kids can pick it up and learn in school or at home if they have a real interest, none of the schools have anything more modern than a 40-year old lathe in "wood shop". Teenagers with artistic talents that wish to do fabrication don't have much more of an outlet than sculpting clay in art class.

And it's really a shame, because talented teenagers who could invest the time in modelling, would produce some really interesting stuff (and a lot of not so interesting) before they graduate to adulthood and have to make only what pays the bills.