Urgent reforms are needed to both learning in the workplace and further education, a new report has warned.

In a study published on Tuesday, the Adult Learning Inspectorate warned that training and education in areas such as hairdressing and plumbing is failing to address the country's skills shortages.

The report found uneven quality in training provisions and that the success rates for work-based learners, though improving, are still low.

Forum Response: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development

A spokesman for the CIPD told ePolitix.com: "This is not the first time that concern has been expressed about the quality of the on-the-job element in publicly-funded work-based training in general and modern apprenticeship in particular.

"The issue is very important as far too few young people in the UK get good work-based training when they enter employment and the government, rightly, want to radically increase the numbers going through the modern apprenticeship route.

"There is a need for an open debate about key skills. They are clearly not integrated into work-based training in the way they should be. But in part this relates to a labour market mismatch between what leading-edge employers recognise they need and what most employers are prepared to accept.

"Too many young people find their way into jobs that require low levels of achievement, in key skills as well as technical skills, and that offer very little in the way of development opportunities.

"More and more is expected of schools, FE and HE and training providers as targets are strengthened and the list of key skills is extended.

"Until many more employers are thoroughly integrated part of the system, making clear the high standards they require and then providing on-the-job development when young people are in work we will continue to see these horror stories merge from time to time."

Forum Response: GMB

A spokeswoman for GMB told ePolitix.com: "The GMB believes that the link between commercial success and a highly skilled workforce is obvious. Skills shortages have arisen across the economy because many employers have failed to invest in adequate training for their workforce.

"The GMB seeks to negotiate for at least five days off-the-job training every year for all workers, at least two per cent of the pay bill spent on training and development, and a commitment to all workers achieving a Level Two qualification and working towards Level Three.

"However, the GMB believes we must move beyond voluntarism towards a statutory framework that includes both obligations on employers to train their workforce and financial incentives to encourage them to do so."

Forum Response: Institute of Directors

Ruth Lea, head of the IoD's Policy Unit, told ePolitix.com: "There needs to be major changes to schools. The current one-size-fits-all GCSE/A-level straightjacket fails too many children and we should be looking to countries such as the Netherlands and Germany in order to develop proper vocational courses.

"Secondly, the current obsession with sending as many young people as possible into higher education undermines vocational training by making it appear a 'second best'.

"This helps no-one, least of all many students who study inappropriate HE courses, and continues to put us at a disadvantage in the international vocational skills league tables. We need more plumbers and fewer media studies graduates."Thirdly and relatedly, vocational education and training need much more support with some serious thinking going into how we can achieve a 'parity of esteem' between academic and vocational education."