Once upon a time a nice lady from the DTI took me for lunch to find out if I thought graduates were entering the workplace with the relevant abilities. It was a rather wonderful three pint lunch during which time we blethered about everything except further education.

On arrival of the bill, which she very kindly took care of, I was prompted for my opinions on the subject we were here to discuss. Out flew this first thing I thought of whereby I rabidly attacked 3 year degree courses, proclaiming they should all be castrated to 1, with the money saved used to subsidise an apprenticeship in industry—the way my dad learned to be a carpenter.

Three pints deep is a magical land on the tisney of sobriety

She noted my forthright outburst with a wry grin and asked why I didn’t have an apprentice. Three pints deep is a magical land on the tisney of sobriety, so I declared that I was going to go straight back to my desk and do just that.

And I did.

I stuck a post on newstoday.com and filtered down the applicants to a talented comp sci graduate from New York who then spent a couple of years with me in Glasgow to go on to return home to head up digital for our New York office.

I really stand by this approach, which is why I am super proud to announce that I have just started mentoring a team of students from Hyper Island. For those of you that don’t know, Hyper Island is the pinnacle of digital education, with only Fabrica nipping at it’s heels.

So, Veronica, Ola, Sandra, Josue, and Christopher—I doff my cap in your general direction and look forward to helping you become all you can be.