The UK government's flagship diploma courses are failing to challenge students, an exams watchdog said yesterday.

The qualifications - which combine work experience with academic learning - have been hailed as a potential replacement for A-levels and GCSEs by Schools Secretary Ed Balls.

But a damning report published by Ofqual found some of the papers sat last year were too easy.

The first five courses - which combine work experience with academic theory - were introduced in some schools in September 2008. These included engineering, construction, IT, creative and media, and society health and development.

A further five - in business, environmental studies, hair and beauty, hospitality and manufacturing - were introduced 12 months later.

In the first report into the content of the qualifications, Ofqual looked at engineering, offered by AQA-City and Guilds, society health and development, offered by Edexcel, and creative and media offered by OCR.

The watchdog concluded the qualifications - all level 2 diplomas aimed at 16-year-olds - were not sufficiently challenging for the targeted students.

"There was evidence across the Edexcel and the OCR specifications that candidates' responses had been limited by poorly designed consortia/centre-set tasks," the report said.

Kathleen Tattersall, chairman of Ofqual, said: "These reports are an important part of our work to safeguard standards in these new qualifications.