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Labour leader Ed Miliband has hit out at the government鈥檚 controversial vocational qualifications downgrade in a speech to industry today.

Miliband claimed government 鈥渟nobbery鈥� was behind its move to downgrade the value of over 3,000 vocational qualifications in January, including several construction and engineering qualifications.

that contractors backing the government鈥檚 latest raft of vocational University Technical Colleges (UTCs) are concerned the downgrade will undermine the viability of the proposed schools for 14-19 year olds.

Miliband singled out the downgrade of the engineering diploma from a value of five GCSEs to just one for criticism. He said the government was wrong to downgrade the diploma 鈥� which is offered by one of only two operational UTCs, run by construction plant giant JCB 鈥� and said it was 鈥渟upported and respected by employers鈥�.

He said: 鈥淭he British engineering sector needs to recruit an extra 2.2 million engineers over the next 10 years.

鈥淗ow can we do that when we have this snobbery getting in the way? Schools should be letting industry in not shutting it out.鈥�

A Department for Education spokesperson said: 鈥淭he reforms are about driving up the quality of the curriculum and teaching.

鈥淭hey will make sure that only the highest quality qualifications are counted in the league tables so employers and the public can be confident in the education system.鈥�