Editors Blog

The sale of the bulk of failed training company Carter & Carter's Train to Gain business to Newcastle College throws up some interesting conundrums that, given that those involved are keeping schtum, could do with a shotgun-toting Michael Caine to unravel.

For example how much taxpayers' money has England's biggest quango, the Learning & Skills Council, pumped into Carter & Carter? Did the LSC intervene when Carter & Carter become a basket case? Isn't this another Northern Rock? Where did Newcastle College get the money from to buy Carter & Carter?

Indeed has Newcastle College paid very much at all for the bits of Carter & Carter it has acquired?

Scarcely a day passes without news of another major bank losing billions because of poor investments in so-called financial instruments - the sort of deals that Arthur Daly would have turned his Crombie collar up at.

Doesn't this indicate serious shortcomings in leadership and management training in these organisations?

August is usually the height of the silly season  when the media is forced to search for ridiculous stories as little of serious note is happening. You know the sort of thing: crop circles indicate alien invasion soon; deck chair shortage hits Scunthorpe; HR killjoys ban three quarter length shorts (good) and so on.

But, I fear. this year the kick off has been brought forward to May with a lawyer warning of "unprecedented" unrest in the nation's offices, a Wally saying without equality "learners can't learn", and the launch of a Strictly Come Dancing package for the corporate market.

Imagine Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson on the eve of a massive Champions League game popping over to Spain to give the Real Madrid coaching team a few tips on how to beat his side.

Or England cricket coach Peter Moores jetting off to Sydney for a chat with the Aussies about tactics ahead of next summer's Ashes showdown.

It's hard to imagine that, isn't it? It just wouldn't happen.

But take this admittedly far-fetched analogy into the complex world of employer-led skills training and the line between fact and fiction starts to blur.

Skills chief Chris Humphries has touched down back in the UK today after a whirlwind trip to China. The reason he was there? To advise them on how to engage employers and 'create an effective skills system'.

That's right - our skills supremo has been helping out the main competition.