INVENTOR Sir Trevor Baylis was guest of honour yesterday at an Oxford conference to encourage more young people to become entrepreneurs.

The 78-year-old, who created the wind-up radio and torch which run without batteries, has seen his invention transform the lives of those in parts of the world with no electricity.

He said playing with a Meccano set as a child set him on the path to being an inventor and called for schools to “go back to basics”.

He said: “By the time I was five I was an engineer and I could make anything I liked.

“I would like to see Meccano introduced to primary schools so that building things becomes part of the national curriculum.”

Sir Trevor, awarded an OBE in 1997 and a CBE in January this year, spoke to an international audience at the Oxonia University Network conference which runs at the Said Business School until tomorrow.

Sir Trevor, a stunt man and circus performer before becoming an inventor, said: “Children are becoming so dependent on computers, mobile phones and Google searches but they don’t know how to make things.”