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Training chiefs have criticised the government for failing to involve employers in the development of new vocational qualifications.

Andy Powell, chief executive of the National Training Organisations national council, welcomed the move to create vocational routes leading from school to university level, announced by education secretary David Blunkett last week.

But he added that the absence of employer involvement showed "how far we have to go to shift the rhetoric of Whitehall to the reality of the workplace".