How to learn for a profession

I want to explain the German working environment to you. If you want to have a career, you have to base it on something. You cannot work from your 20s until your 60s without a foundation, unless you are very lucky. Here are the things I knew so far:

Option one: Job training

A job training is a process that usually takes between 1 and 4 years, but most of the time 3 years. There are job trainings that are only academic (taking place in schools) and, the more common part, mixed job trainings (75% of the job training takes place in a company, the rest in school). During this job training, you basically learn how to carry out a profession. It is paid (except for the only academic version), but usually much less than the profession itself when you have learned it. Usually less then 50% of the usual income, often about a third only.

Option two: Studying

When you study, you go to a university or any other kind of place where people study. It takes longer than a job training, sometimes about 4 or 5 years. It is only academic, consists of lots of theory, and you basically only spend time sitting on your ass, learning stuff from books. There is no real life action involved. It also costs money most of the time, and since you are busy studying, it is difficult to earn a living on the side since you cannot do a full time job, but only get minor income on the side (and since you are not qualified for anything else, you can only do small jobs because this is what the whole thing is about - learn first, then have a proper profession). You also have a problem afterwards since, due to your lack of experience, employers will not find you attractive.


The point is: Studying qualifies you better most of the time and you achieve a higher position in a company compared to a job training, but the job training already allows you to live on the income you get and gives you a smoother transition into the profession. So this is all that I knew up to now.... until today

Option three: Dual studies

I heard about it and had a rough idea what it is, but never took it seriously because it still involved studying, a process I thought always costs more money than it can ever give to you. What I learned today is that, at least in the one I found, you earn up to three times as much as compared to a job training. It not only doesn't cost you anything, you get paid for sitting on your ass learning stuff, and all that in the sheer HOPE of your employer that you will one day be useful to him. Apart from that, you do get to apply what you learned in internships, but they are rather short, so I don't understand why you would get paid so well anyway.
It also doesn't take as long, only 3 years, which is just as long as the average job training. The downside is that you have to study really hard because a lot of stuff is pushed together. It's one of the hardest ways to learn a profession.

Okay, so much about definition. Now I want to tell you what I really don't like about it:

-In school, I was never told this
-In school, they said that someone who studies may earn less in his whole life than someone who didn't study because the one who studies spends about 4-5 years NOT working while the other one already earns money, even though the one who studies has a better-paid job later
-In school, they said he who studies may collect high debts due to studying fees
-In school, they always said it's either studying OR doing a job training
-Studying alone also means that you don't pay any contributions into the old age insurance. That means that your pension as an old person is less for all the years you work less. Therefore, I thought it would be bad for someone like me, who is already in his mid-twenties, to waste more years NOT making contributions
-I always disliked studying due to the fact that it takes 4-5 years (which is not necessarily true, as I NOW know)
-Neither my job advisers, my school, nor my family EVER explained all of this to me

-My brother knew about it
-My mum knew about it
-The whole country knew about it

If I had known that a job training takes as long as a dual studying thing, I might have chosen the latter anyway. It is paid well and you get a good profession afterwards that's well paid. You also make contributions into this whole insurance stuff. I don't know what to say now... I mean, I knew there is such a thing, but I always thought that the salary for working during this dual studies could never outweigh the costs! It didn't even cross my mind. And let me add that the JOB TRAINING I considered in Singapore also cost more than it would have given me!

I mean, why would a company or institution pay so much for you when all you do for them is do an internship here, and internship there, and most of the time, YOU are the one who costs them money because you are new and understand NOTHING of what they are doing. And then? You may fail, or maybe you go to a different company after succeeding. Wow.

I was always someone who didn't know what to do as a job. And I had job advisers who I thought would help me. But they never told me any of this. Why? I mean, I always brought up the reasons for not wanting to study, so why did they not say "hey, wait, you are missing something there." Hmm... anyway, it doesn't matter any more. I think now it's too late anyway.

"I don't want to study because I don't want to realise half way through that it's the wrong thing for me"
"I don't want to study because it costs so much money and I don't get that money from the state"
"I don't want to study because I have not worked much already and if I don't work for the next years, my pension will be low and I will be poor as an old man"

->whoooooosh.... all gone.
My brother will benefit from my mistakes. As always.