More top engineering and science graduates are needed to improve Britain's manufacturing skills gap, according to the Telegraph.
BAE Systems chairman Dick Olver told the newspaper that the City needed to stop poaching top candidates and said he hoped the financial crisis and 'banker-bashing' trend would help persuade graduates to get a job in engineering .
Speaking at an event to boost children's interest in science and engineering, he said: "We need more of the very good engineering graduates to go into engineering rather than the financial services."
He told the newspaper the sector had been examining what creates value and can be exported, which had resulted in high-end engineering and manufacturing.
However, the Government needed to act quickly if it wanted schools and universities to produce enough students with the qualifications to keep the country competitive, he warned.
Britain is producing just 20,00 engineering graduates a year in comparison to countries like India, which is turning out 650,000.
The country will need an estimated 970,000 engineers by 2010 to work on projects such as Crosssrail and the next generation of nuclear power stations, he said.
Britain would need to produce at least 25,000 engineering graduates annually to meet these requirements, he warned.
