> I hope it was a deliberate (bitter? twisted?) joke on your part to describe NVQs (National Vocational Qualifications) as non-vocational qualifications

You are correct - a Freudian slip, I believe it’s called. I really don't have a problem with NVQ's as a concept - just the four-hour meetings I had to go to, arguing about minutiae, rather like this newsgroup but much, much more dull!