Almost 70% of UK businesses believe more young people need to gain business skills before entering the workplace, according to a survey by Young Enterprise.

Businesses believe the youngsters come to the workplace with too much textbook theory and too high estimation of their abilities, which costs business a significant sum to rectify.

The study found that 63% of businesses believe that too much emphasis is put on theory at school and 58% believe that young employees have not been trained to think laterally.

The survey identifies specific skills gap in project management (50%), financial skills (45%) and leadership (49%).

The businesses recommend that young people gain more experience of the business world whilst still in education (84%) and should supplement coursework with business training (70%).