The Federation of Small Businesses is urging students picking up their A-Level results to consider a career as an entrepreneur as an alternative to going to university.

The organisation has revealed that only 28% of entrepreneurs have degrees while 13% have no formal qualifications at all.

“Most successful business people never went to university,” said Colin Willman, FSB spokesman for education and skills. “It will be suitable for some students who have passed their A-levels to go on to higher education but other equally successful students will already have their entrepreneurial ideas ready for action.

“If that is the case, it might be better for them to strike while the iron is hot rather than wait three or four years at university, by which time the chance may have passed.”

The FSB also voiced its opposition to government plans to get half of all young people into university, claiming such a move would damage the UK economy.