CBI tells Balls to abandon diplomas scheme

The government's plans to overhaul GCSEs and A-levels with a new diploma have been dealt a devastating blow after the largest business group withdrew its support, saying there was no appetite among employers for the reforms.

The Confederation of British Industry today warns the schools secretary, Ed Balls, that the education system is too overloaded to cope with the new qualification and that the ultimate plan to replace A-levels and GCSEs should be dropped.

The diplomas would be undermined as private schools increasingly opted for traditional academic exams, threatening a split into a two-tier system of qualifications that would give independent school pupils an advantage in university applications, the CBI director general, Richard Lambert, warned.

The CBI, which represents 240,000 employers, had been cited by ministers as a key supporter of the diplomas in their careful attempts to promote the qualification in the run-up to its introduction in September.

Lambert appeared at the launch of the diplomas last October, and a CBI representative has been on the government's diploma advisory group.

Lambert today withdraws that support, saying: "Employers understand and value GCSEs and A-levels and firmly believe these should remain a cornerstone of the education system.

"Introducing a range of science, humanities or languages diplomas runs the risk of undermining the integrity of these traditional academic subjects.

"And they could also be a distraction from the need to raise the numbers of young people studying science and maths."

He said that his company members remained enthusiastic about the vocational diplomas, but the CBI's submission to a review of 14-19 qualifications, revealed today, says:

· Employers are concerned that academic diplomas will distract from GCSE and A-levels

· The seven-level grading system of the diploma is too complicated and should be rationalised into two

· The plans could lead to a fractured two-tier education system with private schools opting for GCSEs and A-levels, or even the international baccalaureate, while state schools use diplomas

· There are concerns that the overloaded education system "could not cope" with all the planned reforms given the "lack of resources" available, including too few specialist teachers in maths and science, and a poor careers advice service.

In April Jerry Jarvis, head of the exam board Edexcel, warned that students could be left with "worthless" qualifications unless flaws in the diplomas were urgently corrected. Setting out concerns in an interview with the Guardian, he said the new diploma system "risks failure".

The CBI's criticisms focus on substantial changes ministers have made to the plans for diplomas since Gordon Brown became prime minister last year. The Blair government rejected the idea of an overarching diploma which would subsume GCSEs and A-levels, promising to preserve existing exams while introducing parallel vocational diplomas.

Under Brown, Balls has added purely academic versions of the diploma in humanities, languages and sciences and a new "extended" version, designed to appeal to universities. Last October as he launched those reforms he said he wanted diplomas to become the "qualification of choice" above GCSEs and A-levels, promising a review in 2013, which would present the first opportunity for ministers to scrap them.

Michael Gove, the shadow children's secretary, said: "Ministers are pressing ahead with this proposal for purely partisan reasons and are putting ideology ahead of the needs of students and the economy."

The schools minister, Jim Knight, said: "I am surprised at this negative response from the CBI on our three subject-based diplomas, given that Richard Lambert shared the platform with Ed Balls and myself when we launched them last October. The CBI were also represented on the expert group which approved our qualifications strategy.

"I completely reject the notion that we should determine a young person's whole future at 14 - the flexibility of the diploma means it offers pupils many pathways to success, from apprenticeships to higher education.

"Most people agree we should seek to end the divide between academic and vocational qualifications and all 17 of the diploma qualifications seek to bridge that divide."

FAQ: Diplomas

What are diplomas?

A new qualification for 14 to 19-year-olds in 17 subjects ranging from construction to hair and beauty to science. They are designed to replace the thousands of vocational qualifications currently available and bridge the divide between academic and vocational qualifications to improve the status of training-based learning.

When will they be introduced?

The first five are being made available in some areas from September, and all 17 should be in place by 2012 with every 14- 19-year-old in the country entitled to take them. In 2013 ministers will review their progress and possibly phase out GCSEs and A-levels if the diplomas are proving popular.

Are they popular?

At one point ministers hoped 50,000 pupils would start them from September but just under 30,000 have been confirmed. There have been warnings from the head of the exam board who has most heavily invested in them that the plans risk failure because there is too much reform in the system. But the big question is whether universities and businesses will like them.