Shadow Education Secretary Andy Burnham is to call for changes to the education system, placing more value on vocational skills with schools matching qualifications to the skills employers need, and placing more emphasis on routes into work and apprenticeships over university.

The plans would require teachers to give pupils information on vocational opportunities, and aim to create a contract promising students a route into work if they met a set of required standards.

Burnham said that giving young people a clear path into work would help give them motivation to achieve in school.

“The whole political class has failed the young people not planning to go to university by failing to come up with clear, structured routes to succeed in life. I want to put that right,” Burnham said. “If young people see there is something there at the end for them, that will engage them and make school relevant to them. That is part of what is missing at the moment.”