To be clear, that's an option in America as well. They're usually called a "Joint Vocational School" or a "Career Center", and they offer a variety of options.

For example the one I went to had:

* Public Safety to learn firefighting and Emergency Medical Services

* HVAC to learn a heating and cooling

* Building trades to learn electrical, carpentry, plumbing

* Software development

* Medical Assisting (a pre-nursing route)

* Cosmetology for hair stylists and makeup artists

* Engineering and Precision Machining Technologies

There are plenty of other options at that specific career center as well.

A lot of my peers 'looked down' on this choice, as they viewed the "college path" as the only option to be successful in America, and considered this an inferior education.