Engineering (Milan: ENG.MI - news) giants including JCB, Sony (Stuttgart: 853687 - news) , Siemens (BSE: SIEMENS.BO - news) and Boeing (NYSE: BA - news) are set to be disappointed after the Government confirmed plans to downgrade the value of its engineering diploma from five GCSEs to one.
Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, has confirmed that the engineering diploma will only be worth one GCSE in future, not five as it is currently valued.
The change is part of a root-and-branch review of the vocational education system, with more than 3,000 "Mickey Mouse" courses being slashed from official league tables to stop schools playing the system to boost rankings.
Courses in subjects such as horse care, customer service, nail technology and practical office skills will no longer be listed as “equivalent” to GCSEs under new plans.
However, under the new rules, which will affect 2014 school performance tables, the engineering diploma is to be downgraded from five GCSEs to one.
Earlier this month, business leaders at some of Britain's biggest engineering companies wrote to The Daily Telegraph warning that downgrading the qualification would hamper UK skills shortages and put young people off studying the subject.
In the letter, headed by Mike Short, president of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, the business leaders wrote: "The Engineering Diploma is widely recognised as a significant route to providing the crucial technical and practical skills that young people will need to build a Britain that can compete effectively and internationally where technology can make such a difference to our digital world."
They continued: "The engineering community is surprised and stunned at the Government's plan for downgrading the value of the existing Engineering Diploma (LSE: DPLM.L - news) after so little time since it came into existence."
They claimed the Government had not listened to repeated attempts by the engineering world to protect the new diploma, seen as "robust and attractive" in the industry to addressing skills gaps in the UK.
But the Department for Education said it was a sign of the quality of the engineering diploma that it would even be included in performance tables at all in future, rather than be axed from the system altogether.
A spokesman refused to see how including the diploma when thousands had been cut equated to a "downgrade" of the qualification.
He said: “The qualifications that will continue to be included in performance tables are of the very highest quality, and stand out as such.
“Principal Learning in Engineering is an excellent qualification one of just 4pc of courses that will count in the future.
“Some larger qualifications do take longer to teach than a GCSE but we believe all qualifications should count as ‘one’. Employers recognise the quality of qualifications not some abstract equivalency measure."
Mr Gove announced today that the number of courses offered as equivalent to GCSEs will be cut from 3,175 to just 125. Of those, just 70 will count towards the main measure of school performance pupils gaining five A* to C grades.
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