So I'm going to be the german who is going to chime in.

The german system works like this:

The frist 4 years of education you'll got to Grundschule where you learn the basics.

Then you'll get sorted in the 3 different "high school" types.

- Hauptschule

  - This type of school is the least academically demanding and has a lot more 
    hands on classes like woodworking/cooking and the likes.
  
  - This take usualy 5 years to complete.

- Realschule

  - This is the middle ground school it offers a bit of both worlds

  - this takes 6 years to complete.

- Gymnasium

  - This is the more acadamiclly focus type of school, with stuff like AP 
    classes.

  - have to learn a thrid language 

  - takes 8 or 9 years

But after you complete Hauptschule or Realschule you can go do an apprenticeship or add on some more school years to get the better school diploma.

Appranticeships can be in trades, manufacturing, IT or office jobs. There is also Duales Studium where you go to collage but also work half time at a company.

As an example take my school journy: I was sorted into the Hauptschule.

After I completet that school, I added 2 more years school time so i get a Realschul depolma, as a bonus the school I went to also touth me the frist year of electricians apprenticeship.

After that I got a apprianticeship to become a software developer which took me 3 years to complete.

edit: formating and last paragraph