The owner of Superquinn, Senator Feargal Quinn, has said many students appear to leave school without enough knowledge of technology and a weakness in foreign languages.
He was addressing a meeting of the Irish Primary Principals' Network in Dublin yesterday.
Senator Quinn, who now employs more than 5,700 people, said while the rudimentary education of most students was good, a lot more could be done in the areas of science, technology and continental languages.
Irish students were missing out on work opportunities abroad because they were often not comfortable with French, Italian or German. In the grocery industry technology was becoming more important and students needed to be better schooled in such areas.
Senator Quinn said the biggest myth in the education system was that learning happened in school and in college and then ended.
He told the principals what he learned about the education system during his time as chair of the steering committee on the development of the new Leaving Cert Applied.
Speaking of that time he said: "I have to report that we found a less than complete understanding and acceptance within the Department of the key role of training in making the change happen. There was a certain scepticism about the need for training at all."