As a former graduate trainee (FT School of ’88), I’m hardly likely to praise BT’s decision to suspend its main graduate recruitment scheme. On the contrary. The closure of the programme from next year sends a terrible signal.

Trainees are a pain. As the cream of the university output (BT took 130 from 4,800 who applied in 2008-09), they think they know everything, whereas they know practically nothing – whether about strategy or the location of the canteen. They irritate the old corporate hands and incense those who believe the modern marketplace undervalues experience, or, through mass redundancies, actually punishes it. By definition, they need training, which takes time and money. And the returns on that investment often accrue to rivals if the grads jump ship.