David Miliband

The government has announced an overhaul of the national curriculum for 14 to 19-year-olds in an attempt to boost vocational education.

The move came as it was revealed that a working party is to be set up to examine whether an English baccalaureate could be put in place by 2010.

Ministers have expressed concern that the education system is offering pupils academic choice that are too narrow, with insufficient emphasis on vocational training.

The criticisms were spelled out in a speech on Tuesday by school standards minister David Miliband.

"The result is a system marked by barriers to learning rather than support for learning: barriers to combination of academic and vocational study, barriers to cooperation between education and employers, barriers above all to progression by young people as far as their talent will take them," he said.

"Some young people are turned off their studies well before they make choices about GCSE and post-16 courses. But the twin weaknesses in the post-16 offer are critical causes of our low participation, low achievement system."

In the short term the government aims to introduce greater flexibility to the National Curriculum by adding "a range of vocational options".

All pupils will face "work-related learning" in their courses, while new "hybrid" GCSEs will be developed to include general and specialist options.

The teaching of modern foreign languages, design and technology and arts and humanities will no longer be compulsory, but pupils will be allowed to "opt in" to such courses.

"The aims are clear - to stretch all young people whatever their abilities, to use a flexible curriculum to motivate students, and to encourage local institutional cooperation to deliver effective programmes," said Miliband.

But he warned that there would need to be further reforms to the content of courses, with to many vocational programmes lacking "coherence and opportunities for progression" and academic programmes that "do not always offer as much breadth and demand on the students as they should".

The minister also revealed that former school standards watchdog Mike Tomlinson is to lead a review of whether English qualifications should be replaced with a continental European-style baccalaureate qualification.

He pointed to the success of a similar system in American high schools, which succeeds in "recognising different levels of achievement [and] serves to inspire young people to aim high".

"The government believes that this model, designed to suit English circumstances, could help us to tackle long standing English problems, promoting progression and achievement through Foundation to Intermediate and Advanced levels.

"If such a unified system could recognise the range of achievement expected by employers and higher education then it will perform a major service to educational attainment," said Miliband.

But he indicated there would need to be wide-ranging consensus before the government proceeded with the abolition of the A Level "gold standard".

"We have opened the door to reform, and as a nation we need to decide whether to walk through," he said.