Caterers who cannot work out portion sizes are just one side of a growing problem for the economy.

Foremen who cannot calculate the right amount of building materials for a task and supervisors who have to get their spouses to write their reports provide other dire examples of the shortage of basic literacy and numeracy skills among many school and university leavers.

A report from the Confederation of British Industry says the problem is so bad that one in three employers is having to send staff for remedial training to learn the English and maths they did not learn at school.

As pupils prepare to receive their GCSE results this week, Richard Lambert, directorgeneral of the CBI, said that too many are let down by an education system that is failing to teach essential life skills.

“We must raise our game on basic skills. Britain simply can’t match the low labour costs of China and India. We have to compete on quality, and that means improving our skills base, starting with the basics.

“Employers’ views on numeracy and literacy are clear – people must read and write fluently and be able to carry out basic mental arithmetic,” he said.

The CBI report, Working on the Three Rs, which was sponsored by the Department for Education, found that poor literacy was a problem in all sectors, while poor numeracy was of particular concern in the manufacturing and construction sector.

One catering company manager complained of a “total lack of knowledge of times tables” among staff, which meant many were unable to carry out simple calculations.

A personnel manager for a construction firm said that many applicants were unable to construct a sentence and that grammar, handwriting and spelling were often “awful”.

A manager at a building company noted that many foremen “don’t have the skills to work out the areas of squares and rectangles, let alone other shape”.

One personnel development manager cited the case of an employee who became very adept at hiding his lack of literacy by getting his wife to write his reports for him.

The problems are not confined to school-leavers, but extend to higher levels of the education system, the CBI said.

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