Most finance people recommend to save for retirement versus saving for college for your kids. Especially since kids these days can attend CC for general ed ($170/class in CA), and then work through a fully online program as slow as they want while still working.
Although trade school is a great choice in the short term, it's not a good choice in the long term as it limits their ability to switch careers if they get hurt in a workplace incident or if the industry evaporates. These days most recruiters won't consider hiring someone without a BA/BS and I've heard firsthand of companies refusing to promote without a degree.
Get the degree first, then attend the trade school - cover all your bases so that if you need to switch industries, you have the ability to.
i would'nt encourage a kid who wants to go into the trades to delay it to get a 'just in case' degree. college is costly no matter the path a student opts for, the average time to graduate has increased to 5 years in large part b/c students frequently change their majors mid-stream, and these are students who have a desire to go to college in the first place. delaying an appreticeship 4-5 years at the cost of a few hundred thousand in earnings AND spending/incurring tens of thousands at minimum in student debt is not wise financialy.