In Germany, we have two different institutions: Universities (identical to US university I guess) and something called Fachhochschule (I don't know if there even is a correct translation for that, lets call it FH).
University is focused on covering the theoretical aspect of computers with a lesser focus on practical applications - although they are thought to some extent - while FH is more focused on building applications and real-life systems with a smaller focus on theoretical aspects.
The only problem is that FH has long been considered second class and everyone wants to attend university. but in my opinion and based on my experience, many people would be a better fit for FH.
For someone deciding whether to attend Uni or FH, it is often not easy because you cannot guess what you are going to do in your work-life and whether you might enjoy research or you would rather go into industry directly.
Aside from that though, I think it is great that we have different institutions for different audiences with differing goals. Does something like that exist in the United States or somewhere else in the world?
Well, the equivalent for Fachhochschule in the United States are called Trade Schools. But trade schools typically teach things like Aircraft mechanic, train engineer, welding, etc. While I'm sure there are some trade schools that teach programming, typically you would go to a more dedicated place like a coding bootcamp.
Often universities will have separate computer science and software engineering degrees. The first is more academically oriented (for those who want to get a PhD in computer science) and the other for people who want a job as a developer.
I think a better analogy in the US would be universities with an academic focus vs universities with a practical focus. It's not a codified difference and the degrees you get are the same, but it exists somewhat informally.
As an example, in San Diego, the two top universities are UCSD and SDSU. UCSD is much more prestigious but SDSU teaches more practical skills, for example while SDSU biology students have 3 years of laboratory experience, UCSD students will have 2/3rds of one year of laboratory experience. Actually labs will not even consider UCSD students when hiring because they have so little practical knowledge. UCSD students are expected to go on to get professional degrees or higher academic degrees.
In general, in California, "University of California" schools are known to be academic while "California State Universities" are known to be practical. This was somewhat codified in the California Master Plan for Higher Education, where the top eighth of students would go to the UC schools and the top third would go to CSU schools[0].
Maybe the word "equivalent" isn't a perfect fit, but I wouldn't go so far as to say it's "not true." There's some overlap in the concept, if not an exact correlation. I attended a university that had a strong focus on practical applications to the point that it was often tongue-in-cheek referred to as a "glorified trade school."
World Education Services (and others) evaluate foreign degrees and determine the US equivalent, the Central Office for Foreign Education in Germany does the same for US degrees and determines the German equivalent.
The equivalence of credentials matters for example once you get into the realm of government jobs with strict requirements, or getting accepted into Master or PHD programs.
From Wikipedia, "There is another type of university in Germany: the Fachhochschulen (Universities of Applied Sciences), which offer mostly the same degrees as Universitäten, but often concentrate on applied science (as the English name suggests) and usually have no power to award PhD-level degrees, at least not in their own right... The FH Diploma is roughly equivalent to a bachelor's degree."[0]
There doesn't seem to be a community college equivalent in continental Europe [1].
University is focused on covering the theoretical aspect of computers with a lesser focus on practical applications - although they are thought to some extent - while FH is more focused on building applications and real-life systems with a smaller focus on theoretical aspects.
The only problem is that FH has long been considered second class and everyone wants to attend university. but in my opinion and based on my experience, many people would be a better fit for FH.
For someone deciding whether to attend Uni or FH, it is often not easy because you cannot guess what you are going to do in your work-life and whether you might enjoy research or you would rather go into industry directly.
Aside from that though, I think it is great that we have different institutions for different audiences with differing goals. Does something like that exist in the United States or somewhere else in the world?