Ken O’Toole says companies should be made to give young people workplace opportunities long before they turn 15

Companies should be made to give work experience to children as young as primary school age to help tackle the “absence epidemic” in schools, the boss of the UK’s biggest airport group has said.

Ken O’Toole, the chief executive of Manchester Airport Group, said firms had a “moral obligation” to offer opportunities to young people long before they turn 15, the age most UK schoolchildren complete a two-week work placement.