Donnelly was speaking yesterday at the Learning Technologies conference in London. She said that it was a "tragedy" that with high levels of youth unemployment, there are still job vacancies to fill.
Donnelly added: "It's depressing that one in three business owners believe the system is failing and many of our young people are still lacking the soft skills needed to gain employment.
"Our 16-18-year-olds are continually alienated from the workplace, which in the 21st century is an absolute tragedy."
Donnelly who in 2011 won an MBE for her services to e-learning in the further education/adult sector, said she believes technology can make a huge change to employment levels.
She said: "Technology has grown at such a fast pace over the past 10 years and I think we can all agree now, technology is a huge enabler for change.
"As the vocational landscape changes around us, everyone from teachers, employers and students has a responsibility to the youth unemployment problem."
