If you haven't heard by now the latest thinking on board the skills ship has centred around apprenticeships. Both the government last week, and the opposition-government this week, have miraculous plans to ramp up apprenticeships, to drive up skills, to unleash
At a first glance the plans look remarkably similar (surprise, surprise). On the one hand you have current skills ministers David Lammy and John Denham saying they want more employers to get involved and they're making it easier for businesses to do just that. The draft Apprenticeship bill launched last week said it will define what an apprenticeship is - well, that's a start - but also it would go further to set up a national register of apprenticeship employers. It promised £1bn funding by 2011.
On the other hand, you have the Tory proposals - £2,000 offered to employers that offer apprenticeships, and £750m overall to support apprentices of all ages. This one was slightly different, in that if offered to cut red tape, reduce bureaucracy and minimise the burden on employers: all the lovely things that employers want to hear.
But how can either of them really work to engage employers at their very core? Currently just one in 20 offer apprenticeships, yet Denham wants the number to treble by 2013. Well of course he does - he's just promised in the draft Bill to offer every suitable school leaver an apprenticeship.
Yes, offering money and bonus schemes is one thing to get employers interested, but is that really worth all the complicity in the skills system? To access money for apprenticeships, employers have to go through Train to Gain - already complained about by many businesses and senior figures as being too complex, too lengthy and too daunting to enter into.
If you're in charge of making decisions about skills or training in your company, no matter how big or small, what do you need from the government, or indeed the opposition, to make you take notice and get involved to offer apprenticeships?
