[mieseratte]

Nothing about a tracking system actively precludes your being able to jump tracks later in life. To be frank, you're blindly speculating based on this assumption.

> Assigning a person a career based on a test they take at 14 seems awfully reductive and like it would segregate students based on the social standing of their parents. Wouldn't surprise me if the German system reduces social mobility.

That's not how tracking works. They don't assign you a vocation.

[lizkm]

>Nothing about a tracking system actively precludes your being able to jump tracks later in life

Nothing necessarily precludes it but does it really happen that often? I couldn't find any data on this. Is there any evidence that "changing careers" is easier and more likely under the German VET system as opposed to the US system? In fact, evidence suggests that the permeability between the academic and vocational tracks is quite low in actuality [0]. One would logically think that making long "on the track" prerequisite chains a requirement for a career change would add significant barriers to entry. And there is some evidence that supports my theory that VET-like systems increase social stratification and socioeconomic inequity [1][2]

>They don't assign you a vocation.

A difference without a distinction IMO. They assign you a track of schooling which will leave you qualified for only a certain subset of jobs.

[0] https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/a-skills-beyond-scho... page 38

[1]: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40461-016-0033-0

[2]: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-social-stratificat...

[irishsultan]

> Nothing necessarily precludes it but does it really happen that often? I couldn't find any data on this.

Does it happen often in the alternative system? You started with saying that you left school at 14, then went to university at 28. No matter the system that's going to be an unusual situation.