Oddly this doesn't talk a lot about the German model, despite that being the title. The education-tracking system is just about the only structural feature the article discusses. A big part of the German model is ordoliberalism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordoliberalism) and the "social market economy", a particular view on the relationship between the state and private sector. The German approach to labor-employer relations is another part of the model, oriented around consensus-building between sector-wide unions and sector-wide employers' federations.