More students are needed to improve skills, an expert has warned

Two-year vocational - or foundation - degrees will become ever more popular, closing the gap between unqualified and qualified workers, according to Professor David Robertson, of Liverpool John Moores University.

Traditional universities should offer more of them, he added, in an effort to overcome the UK's skills shortage.

This would fit in with proposals to introduce more practical work to the curriculum for 14 to 19 year olds, currently being looked at by a government task force.

'Oversight'

Speaking at a conference organised by the Consortium of Arts and Design Institutions in Southern England (Cadise), Prof Robertson said universities had to keep innovating to improve standards.

However, he said foundation degrees should not be over-regulated.

"How much attention do we need to give to a fledgling qualification before we stop innovation in its tracks?" he asked. "We need to think about the amount of oversight."

Prof Robertson said 70% of young people would enter higher education by 2050. The government's target is 50% by 2010.

Stuart Bartholomew, chairman of the Cadise policy group, said: "Foundation degrees are about the future, not the past. They will be a vehicle of greatly enhanced participation.

Hairdressing and embroidery?

"However, the sector is still dominated by traditional universities, and foundation degrees have to do battle with the entrenched class system that they represent."

The Conservative Party has questioned the need to offer degrees in subjects such as hairdressing and embroidery.

But defenders of foundation courses say they include areas such as medicine, dentistry, therapeutic radiography, social work, teacher training, architecture, quantity surveying, multimedia design and engineering.

The former chief inspector of schools in England, Mike Tomlinson, is leading a working group looking at education from ages 14 to 19.

He has so far suggested a unified diploma, rather than separate GCSEs and A-levels.

This, Mr Tomlinson said, should include a greater element of work-based studies, in an effort to overcome the UK's skills shortage.

Almost a quarter of UK companies last year reported a lack of basic skills among workers, according to government figures.