June 15, 2007
Guru got momentarily excited when he heard about the launch of the Leitch Review skills pledge last week.
After months of waiting, he thought, the government is ready to shout about the move to ask all employers to train their staff to level 2 (full details below).
That was until he dared to find out where it was happening, at what time, and who or what it would involve.
A daily call for at least a week before the Big Day (June 14th, if you didn't know) to the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) press office proved of no use - its spokesperson offered little other than to confirm, on each call: "We are in meetings about this and will send something over soon."
At 4.55pm the night before, Guru still hadn't heard anything about the "fanfare launch" he was promised so faithfully by the DfES weeks ago.
So he rang his mates at the CBI and at the TUC, and then one of the employers allegedly signing the pledge - who all guessed at different times and locations for the launch. One said Westminster, one somewhere in Mayfair, and the other didn't have a clue.
This was turning into quite a challenge, Guru thought.
Did he mishear skills tsar Sir Digby Jones and skills minister Phil Hope personally inviting him to the event weeks before or did he misunderstand that "fanfare" actually meant 'subtle launch' for close friends and family?
Guru, eventually made his way past the first hurdle of PR lovvies to find himself at a glitzy Mayfair hotel, the London Marriott, with "Launch of Skills Pledge - This Way" written in bold on a sign outside.
The launch room was full of VIPs - including chief executives from Ford, BT and Sainsbury's , and good old Sir Diggers himself; and also a mountain of chocolate cakes, fruit berry croissants, and different coloured biscuits. If there was a fanfare, this was it, in full colour and flavour.
Meanwhile, government ministers, the future prime minister Gordon Brown, the head of the CBI and the head of the TUC each launched the pledge with a speech of their own, while 150 big name employers queued to sign up.
It seemed everyone who was anyone was there. Except the media. Just three journalists sat on a lonely press bench at the side of the room during the speeches - Personnel Today, TES magazine and T Mag.
Guru couldn't help thinking that all this fuss was really only for those already wholeheartedly in favour of the pledge - the "in-crowd'" if you please, rather those businesses that might need a little more persuasion.
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