The report also criticised the Key Skills qualifications in numeracy, communication and information and communication technology, brought in by the Labour government to try and make school leavers more employable.
As part of the benchmark, vocational qualifications such as BTecs and NVQs, taken in Key Stage 4 by 14- to 16-year-olds, are given equivalent scores to GCSEs and included in the five GCSEs score.
Instead of qualifications in Arabic or post-conflict experience or anything, Chandrasekaran reports that the key item on anyone's resume was ties to the Republican Party.