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Introduction
 
Back in February 2005 the 14 to 19 Education and Skills White Paper was published in response to the Working Group on 14-19 Reform, chaired by Sir Mike Tomlinson. It set out the Government proposals for introducing the qualifications and curriculum changes that were needed to create a system capable of offering a new set of curriculum and qualifications opportunities, built around the needs and aspirations of each young person. The (Specialised) Diploma was formed as the key to these changes.
 
Why did the government need the Tomlinson Report on 14-19 Education and Skills?
 
Well it was made quite clear by the Prime Minister Rt. Hon. A. Blair in 1997 that “Education, Education, Education” was one of his government’s main priorities. A world class standard of education was going to be built to enable Britain to successfully compete with the rest of the world, or words to that effect.
 
Over the past 10 years the government has imposed a considerable number of educational reforms to raise standards and backed them up with substantial investments in schools, but still UK Plc. performs poorly in the international academic league tables of developed countries. The staying-on rates for teenagers in training and education after 16 is poor.
 
Quoting from the Education Guardian Government must try harder on FE reforms ‘The UK ranked 24th. out of 29 developed nations. When comparing the adult skills of the workforce the UK is 17th. out of 30 developed nations. There is an inconsistency in FE provision and a failure by the FE colleges to meet the needs of employers and learners’ (March, 27, 2006).
 
The momentum for change has been building up even prior to the Review of Vocational Qualifications back in the early 1980’s. Since then there has been a number of reports on the state of education in this country. A very important milestone that increased the impetus for change was the ‘report ‘A Fresh Start-Improving Literacy and Numeracy (DfEE, 1999)’, headed by Sir Claus Moser. The findings of “The Moser Report” as it became known were thus:
 
Literacy
 5.2 million Adults (16% of the population) were at Entry Level 3 or below.
 17.8 million Adults (56% of the population) were below Level 2.
 22% of adults in the North East had an Entry Level in Literacy compared with 12% in the South East.
 
Numeracy
 6.8 million Adults (21% of the population) at Entry Level 2 or below.
 23.8 million Adults (75% of the population) were below Level 2.
 54% of adults in the North East have Entry Level in Numeracy compared with 41% in the South East.
 
The Moser Report concluded with this alarming statement:
 
“One in Five adults has less literacy than is expected of an 11 year old child”

Sir Claus Moser chairman of the Basic Skills Agency reported in 1999 that over an estimated 7 million adults in England had difficulties with literacy and numeracy. They therefore had difficulty undertaking simple tasks such as writing a letter, reading a newspaper article or calculating change; tasks that we may take for granted.
 
An example given in the report was that if given the Yellow Pages such adults could not find the page for plumber本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。