Education Secretary Michael Gove outlined his plans for reform to Parliament earlier this week, indicating that there should be a return to traditional educational values, with pupils encouraged to study more academic subjects and have marks allotted for good grammar and spelling in GCSEs. 

In a whitepaper entitled 'The Importance of Teaching', Gove also called for the creation of a new benchmark for school achievement under what will be called the English baccalaureate. The benchmark would result in students being encouraged to take GCSEs in English, maths, a science, a modern language and a humanities subject.

But the Financial Services Skills Council (FSSC) echoed Labour fears saying that the move risked creating a "two-tier education system", in which the requirements of academic pupils were put ahead of those keen to pursue more vocational courses. 

It said that a key concern voiced by the training and education sector was that such an approach would potentially alienate non-academic students from the workplace and ultimately have a detrimental impact on the economy.

Liz Field, the Council's chief executive, said: "In a post-credit crisis era, it is more important now than ever before for the new reforms to encourage a culture among our schools that promotes a closer working relationship between employers and schools so that the education system in this country can produce graduates and school leavers who are fit for work across a variety of industries."

As a result, it was critical that schools worked more closely with business leaders to produce 'quality' pupils with the necessary skills for employment, a situation that would only become more crucial as the BRIC economies continued to rise in importance, she added. 

A recent skills survey undertaken by the FSSC indicated that many employers believed skills levels among job applicants had fallen dramatically over the last five years. Moreover, there were growing concerns about the quality of both school leavers and graduates and their ability to cope in a working environment.

But the answer lay in quality training and a conscious "improved effort" by the government to "bridge the gap between employers and school heads", Field said.