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National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) were introduced in the UK during the late 1980s in an attempt to develop a systematic approach to the development and certification of vocational skills. They remain important to the government’s ‘skills strategy’ and rely on engaging employers in training their workforces. Information about employers’ perceptions and valuations of NVQs remains valuable and, in September 2004, the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) commissioned a study to investigate these views. The research comprised a brief review of literature on NVQs, a survey of around 1,500 employers and 25 in-depth, discursive interviews with employers. The report discusses employer responsiveness to NVQs from several different perspectives including knowledge and awareness of NVQs, use of NVQs, and employer assessment of NVQs. These chapters use statistics derived from the quantitative employer survey and ‘qualitative’ insights drawn from the in-depth interviews to assess the current position of NVQs in employers’ eyes. A final chapter draws overall conclusions from the research. Appendices include a bibliography of publications considered in the literature review, the questionnaire used in the employer survey, and the discussion guide used in the in-depth interviews. Findings reveal that, overall, the NVQ framework has limitations that continue to prevent it from achieving the ‘all-encompassing position in the qualifications framework to which it once aspired’. Among employers who don’t use NVQs, there is a considerable lack of understanding of them and scepticism about their value. Among employers who do use NVQs, there was acknowledgement that NVQs do not provide a single solution to all qualification needs, but there was a much more positive appreciation of their value.