John Denham MP has called for millions of employees to seize the opportunity of higher education and improve their job prospects.

Speaking at the University of Southampton, Labour’s Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills said: “Our own recent research found that four million people are considering, or willing to consider participating in higher education.

“These are people who are likely to be already in work; they may have family commitments and perhaps missed out on the opportunity to go to university the first time around. There may be others who now consider, quite wrongly, that their time has passed.

"We are now giving them a second chance. I believe that every person who has the ability to go to university should also have the opportunity to do so. We must send out a clear message that it is not too late.

"And I believe that if we are to create the high-level skills base by 2020 that the UK needs, then we must aim to give those four million people who want to go to university the chance to get one of the increasingly wide range of qualifications that higher education has to offer."

Current estimates suggest that a university degree is worth well over £100,000 (after tax at today’s prices) more than stopping education at A-Level.

The Labour Government has already set out a range of policies to encourage more adults to consider higher education. These include the new ‘University Challenge’, which will give 20 towns or regions the opportunity to develop new university centres over six years and allowing students to attend local campuses on flexible courses.