By Gary Eason Education editor, BBC News website

Diplomas in five specialist fields are due to start in 2008

England's qualifications watchdog has said there is a need to review the government's proposed General Diploma for secondary school students.

The diploma will recognise those with five good GCSEs including English and maths - the new attainment benchmark.

But the QCA watchdog says it might "have an adverse effect" on the new Specialised Diplomas, designed to mix general and work-related learning.

Discussions with the Department for Education and Skills are continuing.

Skills sectors

The diplomas were put forward in the government's white paper, 14-19 Education and Skills, published in February 2005.

This followed the government-commissioned Tomlinson report, which recommended having a multi-level school diploma that would take in existing academic and vocational qualifications.

Instead the government decided to keep GCSEs and A-levels and introduce Specialised Diplomas related to different sectors of the economy.

The first five are due to be available from 2008, with others to follow. The chief executive of the QCA, Ken Boston, says they are "emphatically not just vocational".

But the government's white paper also said it would expect more teenagers to achieve five A*-C grade GCSEs including English and maths, adding: "We will introduce a general (GCSE) Diploma to recognise those who achieve this standard."

It described this as "raising the bar". Currently only about 45% of 16-year-olds make that grade.

Concerns

The issue came up at the QCA board meeting in March.

Dr Boston said he would take it up with the then Minister for Schools, Jacqui Smith.

The ministerial reshuffle intervened and Ms Smith was replaced by Jim Knight.

At the next QCA board meeting in May, its director of qualifications and skills, Mary Curnock Cook, is said to have introduced a paper on the subject.

She "outlined a number of concerns", the minutes say, "in particular that the General Diploma might have an adverse effect on the uptake, status and credibility of the Specialised Diploma".

Blend

Specialised diplomas are described by the Sector Skills Development Agency as offering "a real alternative to traditional learning styles".

They will have "an imaginative, high quality blend of general education and applied learning".

Students taking them might either go to university or enter the workforce.

The first five will be in information technology, engineering, health and social care, construction and the built environment and creative and media studies.

Dr Boston has more than once expressed irritation at the "misreporting" of the government's response to the Tomlinson proposals.

In his view, far from rejecting the idea of a diploma to replace GCSEs and A-levels, the government gave it "a green light".

The idea that GCSEs and A-levels will in time be subsumed into new diplomas is commonplace among qualification and assessment experts.