New proposals for the overhaul of education in England and Wales have been hailed as a triumph for employers by Improve, the food and drink sector skill council.

Plans to raise the school leaving age to 18, reform apprenticeships and introduce new rights for adults to access skills training would help the £74 billion food and drink industry meet ambitious skills targets, said Jack Matthews, chief executive of Improve.

Like many manufacturing industries, food and drink is characterised by an ageing, low-skilled workforce, so Improve welcomes the government’s commitment to cutting the numbers of young people who are leaving secondary education with inadequate skills and to improving the provision of vocational training.

“Improve has already introduced a reformed, employer-focused apprenticeship framework for food and drink manufacturing, which offers school-age students the chance to gain bespoke, job-specific qualifications equivalent to three A-levels,” said Matthews. “We are streamlining all the vocational training available for the industry in order to strike the right balance between workload and the on-the-job benefits. And we are also leading the development of the diploma in manufacturing and product design to be rolled out in schools and colleges in 2009, which will offer 14-19 year olds vital work-based experience while again training up the standard of A-Level. Hopefully we can look forward to seeing our attempts to bring training and education in line with employers’ demands mirrored more closely by government policy.”