'ICT skills are essential for school leavers'

Pupils who fail to gain a basic understanding of computer skills could find it to be a barrier to employment, experts have claimed.

In comments that may interest those holding teaching jobs, the Learning and Skills Council stressed that information and communication technology (ICT) skills are important for young people to develop.

The organisation pointed out that a lack of access to ICT could also be problematic, as online recruitment is growing in popularity.

Jon Gamble of the Learning and Skills Council said: "A lack of basic computing skills and access to ICT can be a barrier to employment for a number of reasons, not least because more than 80 per cent of jobs now require ICT skills."

According to a recent Times report, one in five people in the UK are unable to open a word processing file, while just under 20 per cent do not know how to send an email and 16 per cent have problems using a search engine.