Study English and maths to 18, says Ed Miliband The speech will also be personal, focusing on Mr Miliband's upbringing and how his parents fled the Nazis. In comments that are likely to be seen as a reference to David Cameron's privileged background, the Labour leader will begin his speech by saying: "My family hasn't sat under the same oak tree for the last 500 years. My parents came to Britain as immigrants, Jewish refugees from the Nazis. I would not be standing here today without the compassion and tolerance of our great country, Great Britain, a country that my parents saw rebuilt after the Second World War. He will also use the speech to stress the importance of his education at a local comprehensive school. "My school taught us a lot more than just how to pass exams: it taught people how to get on with each other, whoever they are and wherever they were from," he will say. I will always be grateful, because I know I would not be standing here today as leader of the Labour Party without my comprehensive school education. Mr Miliband will add: "At my school there were kids who were good at exams and went on the university. For whom the world would open up, like it did for me. But there were others, who had different talents and abilities, but to whom school didn't offer very much. It was true 25 years ago, and it is even more true today. Under the "tech bacc" plan, teenagers who do not wish to go to university will be offered a tough new vocational qualification. They will have to achieve at least a C grade in GCSE English to secure the qualification. It is hoped that hundreds of thousands of children could benefit. At 18, the teenagers would then undertake apprenticeships with businesses or the Government. Mr Miliband wants to work with business to work out the best way to deliver this training. About £1 billion of taxpayers money, currently paid to the Skills Funding Agency would be paid to business to train young workers. The Labour leader will also say that the public sector should do far more to offer apprenticeships. The Government is also understood to be preparing to unveil a major drive to boost apprenticeships under plans for a new agreement between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats to be unveiled in the autumn.