Under the proposals, pupils would continue to study core maths, English and science but would also have the option of combining the subjects with technical education.
It will include the chance to gain work experience and create connections with local employers, Burnham said, with the government saying the policy will eventually drive down the amount spent on welfare for young people.
While some business leaders welcomed the move, others said youth jobs could be boosted by other means.
Jon White, chief financial officer at building materials firm Huws Gray, said employers were “struggling” with a lack of incentives to hire younger people, pointing to the government narrowing the gap between the national minimum wage for under-21s and the national living wage.
He also said the government should change the rules around how employers can spend the apprenticeship levy. The levy is paid by big employers, with the money raised available to all businesses to help fund apprenticeship training – but White said businesses should be allowed to use it to pay young people’s wages as well.
For schools, the Association of School and College Leaders said they welcomed the prime minister’s ambition, but warned that schools could face capacity issues as they continued to face tight budgets and implemented radical reforms to special education needs.
The National Education Union said the new proposals would “hit the skids unless there is sufficient investment in schools”, while the NAHT school leaders’ union called for “greater clarity” about funding and practical details.
Along with the changes to learning, Ofsted will change the way it measures performance and will inspect for technical education, but it is not clear how this will fit alongside national measures designed to hold schools to account.
Tuesday’s announcement is the latest in a series of policies in recent years designed to offer a vocational route in education as a counter-balance to high numbers of young people going to university.
Former prime minister Sir Keir Starmer previously said a technical education should be valued as much as a university degree, scrapping Labour’s previous ambition to get half of children to university.
In 2020, T-levels were introduced as a technical education alternative to A-Levels in England, with courses including construction, agriculture and health.
Starmer announced earlier this year that V-levels would be an additional vocational option for students post-16 from 2027.
Where T-levels are a set course broadly equivalent to three A-levels, V-levels would be equivalent to one A-level, allowing students to mix and match academic and vocational subjects.
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