Look at Germany's system:
-- a primary school that begins at age six and lasts four years (five or six in some places)
-- a secondary level that generally starts at age 11 (grade 5) and is divided into
-- -- a less academic Hauptschule (to grade 10) leading to vocational education,
-- -- an intermediate Realschule leading to a technical or business school, and
-- -- the academically oriented Gymnasium that leads to the Abitur or Matura diploma and a university education.
(I didn't remember all of that. I'm copying from a site I found to accurately describe that: https://www.german-way.com/history-and-culture/education/.)
30-35% of high schoolers go to university in Germany. In the US, it is 70% (per BLS.gov stats). More Germans pick up a trade. In the US, so many eschew a good trade, and they try to go to college for a year or two, and then they end up working retail saddled with debt. Frickin' get some training as a welder, don't get into debt, make some serious cash, and live a solid life. One of our friends' kids is studying to be a mechanic, and it almost felt like they were apologizing when they told us. I thought it was awesome...he knew college wasn't for him, and he was unabashedly pursuing something he enjoys (he had always been a tinkerer with cars, loved racing, etc.). A lesser man would have sought something he didn't want or would fail at, just because of counterproductive societal expectations.
In Germany, after high school, you can get an internship. My company hired a student to a 9 month internship in Germany, and after 9 months, she didn't have to go to college. We liked her, and wanted her full time, and she could handle low-level project management with the on-the-job training she received from us (and given her aptitude, she can rise...without spending thousands of dollars studying Mexican Murals of the 18th Century and other unnecessary courses US college students take that irrelevant to any job they may take...she just studied what it took to do her job well for 9 straight months). In the US, I think it is more difficult for a high school grad to enter the work force like that...and there is stigma here to that, whereas there is less stigma there. In Germany, she was just another valued member of the team.