By Sean Coughlan BBC News education reporter at the ATL conference in Torquay

'Unacceptable divide' will be created by diploma system

The expansion of vocational education risks creating a "deeply divisive" school system, says a teachers' leader.

Mary Bousted warned the Association of Teachers and Lecturers' conference against a split between academic and vocational paths.

Reforms of the secondary curriculum will see much more workplace training.

But Dr Bousted cautioned against a "stunningly retrograde" move towards dividing pupils at 14.

The teachers' union leader, in an end of conference speech, warned that the government's white paper on 14-to-19 education risked creating an unacceptable divide between pupils pushed down a vocational path and those who followed an academic route.

Pupils will be able to opt for more work-related lessons, in a diploma system which will be designed with the involvement of employers.

The clear intent to create a 14-plus selection is stunningly retrograde Mary Bousted, ATL

Mary Bousted fears this will create the type of divide that once existed between grammar and technical schools, which in the past tended to benefit pupils from better-off families.

"For all the talk of inclusion, the supposition that half the cohort is well-served by GCSEs and A-levels - and that we need a better vocational diet for the rest is incorrect, deeply divisive and wasteful of the nation's talent," she told delegates.

"The clear intent to create a 14-plus selection is stunningly retrograde," said Dr Bousted.

Dr Bousted also repeated her warning to any head teachers who tried to avoid introducing the workload deal in the autumn.

This agreement between government and unions will provide teachers with lesson preparation time - but head teachers have warned that they do not have sufficient funding to implement this.

"You will not be allowed to get away with not giving my members their contractual entitlement under the law. You will not be left alone to go your own way," Dr Bousted said..

On Wednesday, the Education Secretary Ruth Kelly had also told head teachers that they did not have an option not to introduce the new working arrangements - and that teachers could use employment tribunals if heads failed to honour teachers' contractual rights.

A spokesperson for the Department for Education and Skills said: "Diplomas will be available to all pupils in schools and colleges alongside GCSEs and A-levels - not in separate schools. There is no question of dividing young people at 14.

"This government is ensuring there will be real options open to every child - traditional academic options, vocational ones, and a mixture of both.