Coffee with or without Sugar

Among the highlights of the National Skills Academy Process Industries recent national conference in York was an impassioned plea on behalf of apprentices, by George Ritchie of Sembcorp. Highlighting the plight of youngsters who face loing their jobs/training in the recession, he called for urgent government action, commenting that Whitehall officials should "not only smell the coffee, but start drinking it also."

A similar plea was subsequently voiced at a public forum hosted by senior government officials including new enterprise tsar Sir Alan Sugar. Disappointingly, though, Sugar's new role could mark the end of his work as a frontman for the Government's apprenticeship campaign. If so, this is a blow to the process sector, which needs high profile figures like Sugar to champion issues, such as those highlighted by Ritchie, and to attract in more young people.

On a more positive note, as enterprise tsar, Sugar could prove a powerful standard bearer for industry, perhaps even applying his plain-speaking management style to industrial disputes, such as the recent strike at the Lindsey Oil Refinery.

The trade unions, especially the GMB, were clearly unhappy with the Acas-brokered agreement that settled this year's earlier strike over the use of foreign workers at the Total site. Little surprise, so, that the site was again hit by an unofficial walkout just a few of months later.

Whatever triggered the latest dispute, the unions, and for that matter Total and its engineering contractors, would do much better if they dealt with the issues - allegedly problems with training, available skills, regulation and management performance - that led to Shaw Group's UK-based workers losing their jobs in the first place.