The Church of England should seek working-class recruits to become “apprentice priests”, a vicar has suggested.

The General Synod will be told next month that the church is dominated by middle-class priests educated at university. The Rev Alex Frost, vicar of St Matthew the Apostle, in Burnley, Lancashire, said a “language barrier” existed between priests and the working class communities they sought to serve.

He said the path to the priesthood, in which ordinands take a theology degree, was a barrier to many who did not have an academic background. He called for a new route for aspiring working-class priests.

“Most professional industries have got an apprenticeship scheme,” Frost said. “The Church of England doesn’t because it’s got this traditional academic way of teaching our ordinands. This is an exciting opportunity to change the model completely ... to be more attractive to the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker.”

Frost said he was an “habitual truant” who left school at 15 with no qualifications. He worked as a van assistant, tried and failed to become a stand-up comedian and spent more than 20 years managing Argos stores before exploring his calling to the priesthood.

He said an apprenticeship scheme could allow working-class people to “work on placements”, shadowing priests in churches.

Frost said such a scheme would be “more appealing” to people who felt a calling from God. An apprenticeship could include one day a week in a classroom on theological training but the novices would also “learn on the ground” with a full-time priest.

“They learn about the pastoral care that’s needed to go and sit with an old person that might be lonely,” he said.

Frost added that the academic route, which often involved time at a theological college, was a barrier to many.

“I had correspondence from a guy who works in a call centre,” he said. “But his call centre changed his working pattern. The college said: ‘Well, see you.’ ”

Frost said working-class people were an “untapped resource” for the church, which “needs to recognise it’s in decline”. He added that he doubted an Oxford graduate with a masters in Greek mythology would work with the people in his Burnley congregation.

“They might be able to,” he added. “But they’d have to learn to speak the language first of all.”

In a paper to synod next month Frost mentions Lee, an aspiring priest, who was asked to name a favourite artist. “He answered Eminem. The interviewer corrected him, saying he meant an artist such as a painter, not a rap singer. It is clear that the expectations of the interviewer did not take into account someone from Lee’s background.”