You should study the swiss system. Here everybody goes to school for a minimum of 9 years. Then you have a split into two major groups, those that go on 3 more years of school and then go to university. The other group are doing a apprenticeship/school combo where the school teaches you about the job and some more general stuff. The apprenticeship take 3-4 years depending on the profession, IT, for example, is a 4 year program.
Now the cool thing about this is that if your are motivated to do a little extra you can go for some additional school and that will get you almost the same degree as those that go to school for the full 12 years. This essentially allows you to go into higher education and get your bachelor, sometimes even master.
This has the major benefit at people at the university quite often already have 4 years of job experience. This gives them much more perspective on the theory that you learn. Plus you already earn a little money.
If you don't have the means to go to university full time you can do it part time where your job can actually give you additional credits.
The fascinating thing now is that in Germany about 80% of the kids get a mature (takes 12 years in Switzerland) while in Switzerland its only like 20-30%. So only the people who actually want to university do this. Everybody else jumps into some professional fields right away.
The negative side is that 15 year olds have to pick their jobs, you are usually working by 16/17. Many pick the wrong thing, but fortunately there is a pretty good system in place where you can do something else on faster timeline. They have invested a lot in making the system dynamic, there are all different side paths where you can jump into the other tracks.
