Qualified support

National Council for Vocational Qualification chief executive John Hillier will be displeased to learn that the entire first print run - 1,500 copies - of Peter Robinson's Rhetoric and Reality: Britain's new vocational qualifications report has sold out. Even though it is not about individual NVQs, it seems a great number of organisations are still interested in the research, which disputes the NCVQ's claims about the number of qualifications being taken.

Since the report's release earlier this month, Hillier and Robinson, research officers at the London School of Economics, have conducted a very public slanging match about the research on the letters page of the Financial Times. Hillier is no doubt upset by statements in the conclusion such as: "There is no evidence that NVQs have been associated with any increase in the training available to individuals."