Sir Peter Lampl writes for The Times.

Fewer than four in ten school leavers go to university. Yet for the majority who don’t – or for those who don’t relish graduating with £50,000 in debts – the offering is simply inadequate.

The Sutton Trust which I founded in 1997 has long seen university as the key to social mobility. We now believe that proper provision for those who don’t go to university is as important for social mobility.

In our report out today, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) analyse vocational training around the world. In England, they found too many apprenticeships at a low level – GCSE rather than A level standard. Most recent offerings were for adults rather than young people.

Too few vocational courses combine paid work with college day release; instead students are offered college courses with work experience.  The result is five times as many hairdressers are trained for each vacancy and there are three vacancies for each technician trained.  By contrast, apprenticeships match supply with demand.

Having looked at different countries, BCG concluded that we can learn most from Germany and Switzerland. That matches my own experience as both an employee and employer in Germany, where successful apprentices were as respected as graduates.

Revisiting Munich and Basel recently, I met young apprentices learning all aspects of their company, becoming highly employable professionals. Most will go into permanent employment in their company and some will go on to get a university degree.

That exposed a crucial difference between here and there – the level of employer engagement. There are just 6 apprentices for every 1000 employees in Britain, compared to 43 in Switzerland and 40 in Germany and their apprenticeships lead to permanent jobs. Moreover, there are only 300 qualifications in total in Germany compared to 18,000 here.

So, we need a revolution. At present, fewer than 200,000 of the 520,000 apprenticeships starting each year are at level 3 (A level standard), and nearly half of those are for adults.  We need up to 300,000 more such advanced apprenticeships each year if we are to train the professionals, skilled technicians and tradesmen that we need.

There’s no shortage of demand from young people: 11 chased each apprenticeship this year. The real challenge is getting employers on board. Employers should determine what is taught in colleges. But in return, they should take on far more apprentices.

Initially, that will require some public wage subsidies. But BCG show that, within four years, this subsidy would turn into a net annual gain for the economy, increasing GDP by £8 billion a year.

The prize is not just economic. It would also have enormous social benefits, reducing our unacceptably high level of youth unemployment, four times Germany’s, and improving social mobility.

Sir Peter Lampl is chairman of the Sutton Trust and of the Education Endowment Foundation. Read The Times article here (£)