By Mike Baker BBC education correspondent

For once the talk of "the biggest reform of exams for 50 years" was not exaggerated.

The outline proposals for the new "diploma" could involve a complete overhaul of upper secondary education in England.

Unusually for a proposal threatening change to the "gold-standard" A-level, it was not drowned out by a hostile reaction in stout defence of the status quo.

This might be because the proposals put forward by the 14 - 19 Task Force were still at the tentative stage and were accompanied by a promise of no major change for at least five to 10 years.

But the steady pace should not disguise the radical intent of the task force, led by the former chief inspector of schools in England, Mike Tomlinson.

Bridging the divide

He is not simply planning a re-badging of examinations or a change in assessment methods. He made it quite clear that he wants to do away with the GCSEs and A-levels as the free-standing qualifications we know today.

Vestiges of these examinations may remain in the form of syllabuses and some assessment methods. But they would simply be component parts of the four-level diploma. They would no longer survive in their own right.

The significance of this should not be underestimated. If Mr Tomlinson pulls it off he may, at a stroke, succeed in ending the long-lasting academic/vocational divide which has characterised English education.

There have been endless attempts to reorganise and re-name vocational qualifications. But few people understand them.

Even those who do are forced to explain them in terms of their equivalence to the much better known currencies: A-levels and GCSEs.

On-the-job training might be combined with study

If there were just one qualification currency - the diploma - then parity of esteem might finally be achieved for vocational courses.

It has been the failure of the English education system to achieve this parity of esteem - an "equal but different" approach - which has led to an under-valuing of skills-level, craft-level and technician-level education.

The fork in the academic and vocational pathways has meant young people completing an academic education without achieving vital life skills, such as capability in maths, English, IT, team-working and presentation.

At the same time, it has led to students who leave the academic route abandoning broader education in favour of a narrow, job-specific training.

Worse still, it has led to too many 17 year olds dropping out of education and training altogether.

The proposed diploma - offered at entry, foundation, intermediate and advanced levels - would involve students in three, concurrent streams of learning.

These are:

• their chosen specialist curriculum (academic, vocational or a mix of the two)
• a set of key skills invaluable to adult and working life
• wider activities which would demonstrate broader abilities, such as team-working, problem-solving, commitment and stamina

If it works, universities and employers would know from the level of diploma achieved that the holder of the qualification had the range of skills to be a successful learner, employee and adult.

Of course, there would have to be a supplementary report, detailing which subject specialisms the student had followed.

But, crucially, there would be a single qualification, denoting a level of achievement which mixed academic, vocational and general skill levels.

It could be argued that successful education systems abroad - such as France and Germany - have achieved this without lumping everyone into a single qualification framework.

Sheep and goats

In these countries they still have separate routes for university-bound, academic students: the Baccalaureate in France and the Abitur in Germany.

But these countries are not handicapped by a history which has branded practical, vocational education as second-rate.

Germany's "dual system" has been very successful. It is called this because it combines two routes into one: employer-provided training with part-time education in vocational schools or colleges.

It offers young people a vocational qualification of high-standing. That is largely because it incorporates school or college-based learning. Indeed many who go down this route first obtain the Abitur, the equivalent of A-levels.

It would be the equivalent in England of a student taking, for example, three or four AS- and A-levels and then - instead of going to university - taking a paid traineeship with, say, an airline, to train as an aircraft engineer, while continuing part-time study at a specialist or further education college.

England does not have many who mix these routes: we tend to be divided into sheep and goats by the age of 16.

If the diploma can end that division at 16, and can persuade more 17 and 18 year olds to continue with vocational training combined with broader, transferable-skills, then it has the potential to achieve a radical change in English education.