Britain's education system is failing to teach basic literacy and numeracy skills, the CBI has said.

A third of firms now have to pay for remedial training for employees to make up for the deficiencies of schools and colleges, the business organisation warned.

Ahead of the publication of this week's GCSE results, the CBI expressed concern that businesses were being left to "pick up the bill" for extra teaching.

A survey of over 500 firms found that 37 per cent of firms are not satisfied with the basic literacy and numeracy of school leavers.

A separate study, to be published next month, is also set to find that 83 per cent of employers believe the government should focus on key literacy and numeracy skills.

With the latest figures suggest that employers spend over £23 billion a year on training, the CBI said the amount was continuing to rise.

And a "significant proportion" is being spent "ironing out basic problems which should have been resolved by state education".

"Too many school leavers are failing to make the business grade," warned CBI chief Digby Jones.

"A fundamental working knowledge of English and maths provides a vital foundation for every day-to-day business task.

"But the education system is letting down many young people and leaving them unprepared for the world of work."

Seeking to avoid accusations of unjustified attacks on GCSE pupils, Jones said that this year's results would reward the "hard work of many young people and teachers".

"But I hope that the overall trend shows an improvement on last year when 48 per cent of pupils failed to achieve grade C or above in Maths and 56 per cent failed to get grade C or above in English," he added.