Private sector businesses are increasingly having to pay for the shortfall in basic business skills among young people and I would urge the government to take action before it is too late.

Our young people are more skilled in IT than ever before. Their use of social networking platforms, file-sharing and multi-media applications leaves most people over the age of 35 baffled. But they can’t operate most office systems. It seems that their voracious appetite for computer-based knowledge is being largely ignored and unexploited by our education system.

And it’s private sector businesses which are increasingly having to pay for the shortfall in these crucial skills by turning to private providers for training in basic business competency. We’ve seen the number of basic IT courses being booked by UK firms rise dramatically over the past few years. Courses on how to use Microsoft packages - the most commonly used computer programmes in business - have risen by 55% over the past year. Why? Because more than half of all jobs in the UK are office-based and need these skills. Skills they are not leaving school or college with.

Last year, education secretary Fiona Hyslop announced that every secondary pupil would sit compulsory literacy and numeracy exams to address concerns from business that too many pupils are leaving school without basic standards. But businesses can’t wait that long. At a time when cashflow is under increasing pressure, business owners are having to splash cash on training junior staff members on the business basics such as how to use Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook.

Unless the government addresses this problem soon, our future generation of business leaders will be left lacking basic business competency, which in this current climate is a matter of commercial life or death.