Victorian students may soon have to meet minimum literacy and numeracy standards if they want to leave school with a VCE qualification.

In what could signal the biggest shake-up of the high school certificate in decades, Fairfax Media understands that the state's curriculum authority is investigating a new compulsory literacy and numeracy test that students must pass before graduating.

It is also examining whether students should have to achieve certain NAPLAN results in order to graduate with the VCE or its vocational equivalent, VCAL.

Industry bodies including the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry are calling for the changes amid concerns that too many young people are finishing school with poor skills.