Michael Gove may be right in tightening the criteria around those qualifications that “count” in school performance tables (“Five into one will go, for vocational qualifications”, 3 February). But taken alone, his action risks further depleting the status of vocational learning without any attempt to meet the real challenge: the need to transform it.

The announcement should have been coupled with a cross-party commitment to deliver the best professional and vocational education in Europe, not as an alternative to the academic route that the “less academic” fall into, but as a part of every young person’s education. On first hearing, the education secretary’s announcement felt like another assault on vocational learning. It doesn’t need to be - let’s make it the start of something new.

Dr Tony Breslin, Director of Breslin Public Policy Limited.