PUTTING the same value on technical and academic education has "escaped" the country for too long, a leading entrepreneur has warned.

Lingerie tycoon and Tory peer Baroness Mone of Mayfair said the situation had not been helped by the "confusion of technical qualifications", which left employers "bewildered".

She argued the Government's Technical and Further Education Bill would seek to tackle this problem.

Lady Mone, who founded the bra and underwear empire Ultimo Brands, gave her backing to the proposed legislation during its second reading in the House of Lords.

The Bill renames the Institute for Apprenticeships as the Institute for Apprenticeshipsand Technical Education and extends its role.

It will also create an insolvency framework for further education (FE) and sixth form colleges to better protect students, and extend the duty to provide information on FE training.

Speaking during the second reading debate, Lady Mona, who led a government review to help increase business start-ups in the most disadvantaged communities, said: "We have a duty to give all young people every single opportunity to follow their dreams."

She welcomed the Prime Minister's wish "to give the same opportunities and respect to those who pursue technical routes as we do to university graduates".

Lady Mona told peers: "Placing the same value on technical and academic education has escaped us for far too long.

"It's not helped by the fact that employers know exactly what academic standards are, but are bewildered when it comes to a confusion of technical qualifications."

Stressing the need for "meaningful qualifications", she added: "There's no point having a piece of paper if you don't get a job."

Tory former education secretary Lord Baker of Dorking also welcomed the Bill and the cross-party agreement on wanting to secure a better apprenticeship system.

But he argued the need to assess the UK's skills gap and said he was "rather surprised" the Government's recent industrial strategy did not address the issue.

He said: "Because if we don't have skilled workers it doesn't matter what industrial strategy you adopt, it simply will not be fulfilled.

"And the gap, very distressingly, is growing greater year by year."

Lord Baker highlighted a 2016 survey by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) that revealed 69% of members were concerned about not being able to fill highly skilled jobs, up from 55% the previous year.

He insisted computing should be a compulsory subject in secondary schools.

He added: "I personally think it's more important for students to understand a computer language than to pick up the smatterings of a foreign language.

"We are on the absolute threshold and dawn of a digital age and youngsters must have that ability.

"There's a huge amount of need of investment in computing and digital skills."

Lord Baker also said the coalition government ditching Labour's apprenticeships for 14-year-olds had been a "mistake" and called for them to be restored.

He believed there were many youngsters in school "who are very fed up with the range of subjects they are studying and become very disengaged indeed and would like the opportunity of becoming youthful apprentices".

He pointed out that key figures of the industrial revolution, James Watt and Josiah Wedgwood, had both started as young apprentices.

Labour former education secretary Baroness Morris of Yardley said: "I really hope this is the time when there's a piece of legislation that really moves us forward in terms ofapprenticeships and technical education."

She added: "For all the strengths of our education system we have failed to get technical, vocational and apprenticeship education right.

"It's the only area of our education system that I think we used to do better years ago than we do now.

"I don't buy into this thing that education used to be better 20-30 years ago, but I think in this area it was probably better 40-50 years ago than it is now.

"We need to re-find the good things that happened then and shape them for the world in which we live."