O'Grady, a lecturer in psychology at Institute of Technology, Tralee, said that he was particularly concerned that there seemed to be a great disparity in the difficulty levels of courses at the lower end of the framework, which ranks qualifications across ten levels.

The Sunday Tribune has discovered that one state awards body, FETAC, has approved courses in bar skills, learning to be a security guard and becoming a retail sales assistant, which are ranked at Level 4, the same level as an ordinary level Leaving Certificate.

FETAC has also approved courses in signwriting, hairdressing, freight forwarding and bar service operations at Level 5, the same level as an honours Leaving Certificate.

Meanwhile, FAS operates a Level 3 course, which is the equivalent to a Junior Certificate, which features subjects including cooking breakfasts, calf feeding, learning to use a lawnmower and sandwich making.

"I would be wary about the use of these FETAC courses as stepping stones to higher education, " said O'Grady. "I'm fearful that students who would be unable to attain a certain level in their Leaving Cert may use these to gain entry through the back door and they'd be too weak for college courses."

He said he was particularly concerned about this because he felt that colleges tended to lower their academic standards to accommodate weaker students rather than fail them. "There's a great pressure on institutions to keep their numbers because they're interested in their own survival and growth and they are financed by the numbers they have."

However, FETAC's chief executive Stan McHugh said that it was "very easy to play the devil's advocate and run these things down but this is not dumbing down". But he admitted that "from a traditional way of looking at things some people may be surprised" by some of the courses it accredited.

He defended the variation in apparent course difficulty within each level, stating that courses fitted in with the overall national framework. "The levels were decided on a 'best fit' basis, which was done with reference to a whole range of things including reference to other qualifications."

"In the future, we will find things moving or being redesigned and then you will get less variation but I wouldn't apologise for the variations that are there, " said McHugh.

When asked why courses containing subjects such as learning to use a lawnmower carried equal weight to the Junior Cert, he replied: "there are significant learning opportunities involved.

It's not just the technical skill, there's the human side, the personal side."

Mary Lyons, director of community services at FAS said that its Level 3 programmes were designed for people who had left school early. She said that the subjects such as breakfast cooking and lawnmower use had been inserted into its courses to help people re-engage with training.

"What you're trying to do is find an area of interest for people so there's a wide range of subject choice because of that, " she said.

She also said that most of the subjects could put people on the path to employment. For instance, learning to use a lawnmower was essential for greenkeeping and environmental work.