Labour leader Ed Miliband is to propose "technical degrees" - putting vocational subjects on an equal footing with traditional academic degrees.
In a speech to an education charity, Mr Miliband will say he will work with universities and employers to create such high-status qualifications.
Labour has called for more options for what it calls the "forgotten 50%" who do not go to university.
The Conservatives said his speech contained "no new ideas".
Technical degrees will help to drive a "high-wage, high-skill, high-quality economy," Mr Miliband is to say.
The proposals from the Labour leader set out an education pathway for vocational rather than academic subjects. It suggests that under Labour, university expansion would be focused on vocational training.
Vocational 'gold standard'"For too long, governments have believed there is only one way to success through education which is to follow the conventional academic route - to do GCSEs, A-levels, a traditional academic subject at university and then on to a career," Mr Miliband will say.
Such an academic route is not appropriate for all young people, he argues.
"Start Quote
End Quote Ed Miliband Labour Party leaderThis is a new direction for our country - equal status for vocational qualifications"
The proposals, to be announced on Tuesday, will outline a way for talented vocational students to progress into higher education, with the creation of "technical degrees".
Mr Miliband will point towards Germany as an example of how vocational qualifications can be given a high status.
Students would be able to continue working while studying for such qualifications, he will suggest.
"This is a new direction for our country, equal status for vocational qualifications from school to university and beyond, equipping our young people with the skills they need and providing our country with a reason to be confident for the future so we can compete with the very best economies in the world in a race to the top," he is expected to say.
He will also say that there is a "real danger of our children doing worse than their parents" and that the economy needs to make better use of young people's talents.
The proposals were welcomed by the EEF manufacturers' organisation as a way of helping to "plug the skills gap and fill the pipeline of talent urgently needed by UK manufacturers".
"While our industry needs graduates, it also needs more talented young people to see vocational-based training as an attractive alternative to academic study," said Tim Thomas, the EEF's head of employment policy.
The emphasis on high-level vocational training marks a dividing line in higher education policy between Labour and the government.
There are plans from the government to expand the number of university places - with an initial 30,000 student places to be funded this autumn and a further 60,000 the following year.
Universities minister David Willetts has said: "Graduates are the engines of our future growth."
Ahead of Mr Miliband's speech to the Sutton Trust, Conservative skills and enterprise minister Matthew Hancock said youth unemployment had risen under Labour and "far too many of our children didn't get the training they needed to succeed".
He said the current government was "leading a skills revolution" with 1.8 million new apprenticeships.
Labour proposes 'technical degrees'
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