[ItsMe000001]

As a German, I would like to answer but I don't understand what you mean...? What is a "technican"? What is a "professional"? What "ceiling" are you talking about? And what EU rule?

Anyway, notwithstanding that I don't know what you are asking, the parent is pretty much right.

[walshemj]

I was talking about the difficulty in switching from the vocational track - to ones that require a degree.

[ItsMe000001]

That is possible, and there just was an article in a major paper reporting that the numbers of people using that option has increased substantially (German article): http://www.spiegel.de/lebenundlernen/uni/deutschland-60-000-...

60,000 students without "Abitur", the traditional path, if you have job experience of "several years" (don't know what that means) you can still study.