I went to college, but couldn't afford University - my parents earned too much, for me to get a grant, but my father had remarried and didn't have any money spare to pay for my education. So I started working instead. By the time I was 22, I was earning more than the graduates coming out of Uni and starting work in the company - I was also more senior...
It also didn't stop me getting a job as a lecturer at a University! 
That is pretty much how Germany works, once you have finished school, you either go on to Uni to study for an academic type job or you get an apprenticeship for a normal job - solicitors, doctors, computer programmers, engineers would fall into the former accountants, category, nurses, bakers, butchers, car mechanics, shop assistants would fall into the second.
To run a garage, butchers, bakers or to run an electrician's business, you need to have done your apprenticeship, then worked in the occupation for a couple of years, then have made your Meister Certificate (Master of the Trade). If you don't have the Meister, you can't run a business in that area - there are some exceptions, like a general store or computer business, but most types of work require a Meister Certificate.
If you inherit a business, for which you haven't trained, you are required to employ a Meister to run the business for you, until you get your own Meister Certificate.
It means each profession is well regulated and has its own professional body, but you can guarantee that the people in that profession know what they are doing - well more or less...
You can re-train for a new occupation or profession, but you start over on apprentice wages, until you have completed the apprenticeship and then you work your way back up through the pay scale for that profession - usually regulated by the level of qualification in that occupation and number of years working in that occupation.
My girlfriend started out with an apprenticehsip to work in a supermarket, then after the children were in school and her husband had left her, she re-trained as a bus driver, but the hours weren't conjucive to bringing up children, so she trained to work in a Kindergarten, then as a cleaner in a nursing home, before getting the chance to work in the kitchens, she has now worked her way up and is head of the kitchen in one home and will start her Meister Certificate course next year - it takes 2 years of classes, for which the employer has to give you time to attend, before you can take the exams.
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