[sofixa]

> I would imagine in Europe they select more carefully the students whom will go to College. Here in the US we've told students that everyone must go to College

You imagine wrong. Pretty much everyone goes to university in most and European countries. Even in wildly tourist dependent places, a degree in tourism is a normal thing for a young person to pursue before going to work at hotels/restaurants.

[dukeyukey]

It's actually less than half for the EU as a whole - https://erudera.com/news/statistics-show-41-of-eu-youngsters...

[sofixa]

The absurdly low numbers for Romania and Hungary make me think that people leaving to study abroad fall through the cracks in these stats.

[dukeyukey]

If those students/graduates move to other European countries (which they mostly do), they'll be counted in their destination country, evening things out.

Where did you get the idea most Europeans get a degree?

[sofixa]

> If those students/graduates move to other European countries (which they mostly do), they'll be counted in their destination country, evening things out

If they move to the Netherlands, the NL will only count what % of its citizens have degrees, not everyone else (because many may go back or move elsewhere after finishing their studies, you can't count them easily alongside the rest of your population; students are usually counted as some sort of temporary resident, if counted at all). And then there's also the UK which is a top study destination for Eastern Europeans.

> Where did you get the idea most Europeans get a degree

I come from one EU country, live in another, have friends from all over the EU, have visited as a student and now working adult. Most young people pursue degrees, even in forestry or tourism or whatever topic. Of course some will fail getting them, but 30% of under 30s is absurdly low for stats to be reliable.

[Lukas_Skywalker]

In Switzerland, it‘s only about 15%. The others most often do an apprenticeship: https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/politics/apprenticeship-system/...

It‘s a pretty efficient (and quite unique) system. People learn to do their job at a normal company and attend school for usually two days a week. And they can still switch to the university track later without starting from the beginning.

[MichaelRazum]

Wow interesting! Swiss have also one of the highst gpd per capita. And the university EthZ beats most of other European universities.

The thing you mentioned is not unique to Swiss Germany had it as well. But I think still you have there more people who study...

[cscurmudgeon]

Data says otherwise though.

Only three European countries are above the US in tertiary education rate: Ireland, UK and Luxembourg.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1227287/share-of-people-...