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The UK's knowledge economy is at risk, according to a new report, partly because students are studying the wrong subjects.

The report is entitled Delivering i2010: Ensuring the Right Conditions for an Innovative, Inclusive and Competitive UK Knowledge Economy.

It was compiled by experts from organisations including Microsoft and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

It focuses on how Europe's i2010 competitiveness goals can be met.

The authors have highlighted developments in ICT as a key part of the process - and urge the government to encourage ICT and other subjects of "national importance".

Gordon Fraser, one of the report's authors and managing director of Microsoft UK, said: "Millions of people are still leaving school without the necessary skills to enter the workforce.
"Business, academia and government need to act now, or we will fail not just the current generation of school and university leavers but we will fail to provide the UK economy with the potential to attract and retain high-skill businesses in a fiercely competitive global market."

The report also says that industry and higher education institutions within the UK should work more closely to produce graduates with the skills the UK economy needs.

Experts within the ICT recruitment sector have recently complained that new graduate applicants often do not have the necessary interpersonal and business skills to complement their academic qualifications.