School reforms intended to revolutionise secondary education with the introduction of job-related diplomas could go horribly wrong, Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary, admitted yesterday.

The Government’s specialist diplomas for 14 to 19-year-olds were described by Mr Johnson as the most radical education reform anywhere in 40 years. The Government hopes that they will be respected by universities and business leaders alike, and will encourage more teenagers to stay on at school after 16.

The first five diplomas — in IT, construction, media, health and social care, and engineering — are supposed to be available in England from September next year. The target is 14 subjects by 2013.

Yesterday, however, Mr Johnson appeared to cast doubt on his own policy by admitting to delegates at the annual conference in London of the Association of School and College Leaders, that the diplomas could be considered inferior to GCSEs and A levels. “This could go horribly wrong, particularly as we are keeping A levels and GCSEs,” he said.

Many education experts believe that the current qualifications should be absorbed into the new diplomas to produce a single qualification system, but Mr Johnson has resisted, arguing that GCSEs and A levels should be retained to ensure that young people have diversity and choice in their studies.

Yesterday he acknowledged that there was a “cultural issue” to overcome to establish the credibility of the new diplomas.

It would help if people stopped referring to them as “vocational diplomas” or “training schemes”, he said. “There is a danger of diplomas becoming, if you like, secondary modern compared with the grammars. We will have to put resources there and work with schools, universities and businesses to get them to appreciate them.”

There is unease about the credibility of the new diplomas across the education spectrum.

Ken Boston, the head of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, which is developing them, has said that diplomas will “die in the water” if they were not highly regarded by universities and employers.

John Dunford, the association general secretary, said that Mr Johnson’s comments were refreshingly honest and that he shared his concerns. “With the educational history of this country being littered with examples of first and second-class schools, and first and second-class qualifications, the only guarantee of success will be when the diploma, embracing both the academic and the vocational, is the only game in town,” he said.

Even head teachers who support the new diplomas have concerns about their perceived value and quality, cautioning that the target date for introducing them looks tight.

Steven Holdup, the head teacher of Dallam School in Cumbria, which hopes to be among the schools to pilot the diplomas with a consortium of schools and colleges in his area, said: “The area where it could possibly go wrong is if the qualifications are not recognised once the kids have got them.”

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