<p>I’m only really familiar with Germany and a bit with France. I had one friend in Germany who was trained to be a bank teller at 16 and hated it. She ended up getting a bunch of private education so that she could work at a travel agency and later as a secretary. She tried to get the education she’d need to attend university, but ended up getting sick and she never managed to get on track for it. I also knew two kids in our architectural office who at 16 were getting trained to be architectural draftsmen. One had been a pretty mediocre student and I think the experience of working was good for him. The other I don’t think had any real interest in it. </p>
<p>In France there are not only vocational and college tracks, but there are tracks in high school that divide you into science, social studies or humanities types. I’m not convinced that the students in the literary track necessarily know as much math and science as good students in decent US high schools.</p>