TOO many young people are turning their back on science and technology because of faults in the education system, according to the CBI.

Britain’s biggest business group has warned that thousands of potential scientists are being lost because of a stripped-down science curriculum, a lack of specialist teachers and uninspiring careers advice.

As a result the UK's world-class science base is being eroded at a time when new international competitors are emerging and traditional rivals are getting stronger.

Malcolm Hyde, CBI South East regional director, said: "The problems begin in secondary school and reverberate up the education system to such an extent that the number of A level pupils studying physics has fallen by 56 per cent in 20 years.

"Over the same period those studying A level chemistry has dropped by 37 per cent."

Over the last decade the number of graduates who leave university with a degree in physics, engineering or technology has slumped, as a proportion of the whole, by a third. Only 32,000 undergraduates qualified in these subjects last year.

Mr Hyde added: "Demand for knowledge-based jobs such as chemists, physicists, engineers, and lab technicians has been rising consistently, and by 2014 the country will need to have found 2.4million new people with these skills to meet expected need.

"Employers are worried about the long-term decline. They see the young people who leave school and university looking for a job, and compare them to what they need - and increasingly are looking overseas for graduates."