On the eve of the long-awaited unveiling of hospitality and tourism's National Skills Strategy by People 1st in Westminster tomorrow, the head of the British Hospitality Association (BHA) has urged caution.
On his blog Bob Cotton, chief executive of the BHA, says that while skills provision and training in the industry is indeed a terrible state, at least part of the blame lays at the door of a raft of ill thought-out education initiatives that have been launched thick and fast during the past 20 years.
Far from improve the situation this has confused employers so much they have simply thrown their hands up in disgust and refused to train staff.
Cotton points out that it's all very well launching a new framework but People 1st have one hell of a task on their hands to overcome employers' current cynicism .
The head of the BHA also argues that selling increased productivity - a nebulous term in his book - as the reason to train, as People 1st are doing, will not resonate in the same way as if the message was 'train to boost profits'.
Keep your ears open and whiskers front, Kitchen Rat will bring you more tomorrow.