Sixth-formers could spend up to 12 hours extra in lessons each week under a Labour government, while disaffected 14-year-olds could be sent to college to take vocational courses.

Under Labour's plans for 14- to 19-year-olds, published yesterday, both A-Levels and their vocational equivalents would lead to an "Advanced Diploma" qualification. But to gain this certificate, students would be expected to take extra courses in subjects such as information technology, maths and communication skills.

David Blunkett, Labour's education spokesman, said that sixth-formers in England had only 18 hours of lessons a week, while their counterparts in France and Germany had 30.

The party's paper, Aiming Higher, stops short of proposing the abolition of the A-levels. Instead, it said, qualifications such as the existing General National Vocational Qualification (GNVQ) should be given parity of esteem with the academic exams. Both should lead to the Advanced Diploma, which would be equivalent to two A-Levels or one advanced GNVQ, plus the extra "core skills".

In addition to its plans for sixth-formers, Labour plans to reform education for 14 to 16- year-olds. Mr Blunkett said yesterday that 1 pupil in 10 left school with no qualifications at all, while in some schools the figure was as high as 30 per cent.

These youngsters should be freed from some of the demands of the national curriculum so that they could spend a day or more each week at college, he said. They could follow vocational courses which might motivate them more effectively than academic study in which they were likely to fail.

t Funding cuts have left universities with a stark choice between cutting student numbers or putting the quality of their courses at risk, the Higher Education Quality Council, set up to monitor standards, argues in a new report.