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The new work-based diploma for 14 to 19-year-olds will cost £1,000 to £1,500 more per pupil per year than GCSEs or A levels to teach, and yet ministers have still not worked out the costs of introducing it, the public spending watchdog concludes today.

The highly critical report from the Public Accounts Committee also says that the diplomas, which will be worth the equivalent of between five GCSE passes and three and a half A levels, could confuse parents and students, and further complicate the alphabet soup of qualifications already on offer.

The report commends the aim of the diplomas to combine academic and vocational study into a single qualification. But it questions whether there will be sufficient numbers of appropriately trained staff and enough work-placements to deliver them.

Edward Leigh, the committee’s chairman, suggested that greater clarity was needed in explaining the diplomas to the general public to make sure that young people selected the most appropriate qualification for them.

“The new diplomas could further complicate the already complex choice of qualifications at ages 14 and 16. Young people must make the right educational choices and that means that they and their parents require clear and complete information on what's available.

“They will also want to be convinced that higher education institutions and employers accept the diplomas as credible qualifications,” he said.

The diplomas are being phased in from this term. The Government aims to ensure that 14 diploma subjects are on offer throughout England by 2013. They are being introduced collaboratively by consortia of schools and colleges.

The report did not look at the three academic diplomas, in science, languages and humanities.

The report found that 45 per cent of consortia had not involved employers in deciding how to provide the two weeks work experience, which is supposed to be an essential element of the qualification.

The same proportion had not yet determined whether they had enough appropriately skilled teaching staff to deliver the full range of diplomas by 2013.

There was also little sign of co-ordination between the capital requirements of schools and colleges for the delivery of the diplomas and the multi-billion-pound school and college rebuilding programmes already underway.

Christine Blower, acting general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said that the report raised important questions about the credibility of the diplomas.

“If diplomas are to be understood as a serious qualification then the Government has to ensure that universities and employers accept them.

“It also has to make clear that the approach for diplomas as a single overarching qualification, will be the sole successor to the vast range of qualifications that we have now.”

Mary Bousted, of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), said that she was also concerned that schools and further education colleges, which traditionally compete with each other for students, were being asked to collaborate in the delivery of the diplomas.

“These tensions need to be resolved and seen for what they are — symptoms of how the roll-out is being carried out. If these implementation issues are not resolved they might lead to bigger problems and risk derailing the diplomas altogether,” she said.

Michael Gove, the shadow schools secretary, said that it was very worrying to see yet another report criticising the Government's handling of their introduction.

“Not only are there problems with patchy provision, but this report suggests the Government has no idea about the costs of implementing the reforms,” he said.

Jim Knight, the Schools Minister, acknowledged that there was “more work to be done” to implement the diplomas in full.

“It’s essential we get these changes right — that's why we avoided ‘a big bang’ approach to reform,” he said.

He added that the government would shortly be publishing new guidance to help local areas prepare for the reforms.

www.timesonline.co.uk/schoolgate

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