Premier Dr. Ewart Brown's speech in Washington last week was not the first time he had discussed the idea of "apprenticing" Bermudians to executives in international business, but he did put a little more flesh on this still a-borning policy. And while it would be premature to comment one way or the other on it while it is still very much in the gestation stages, it should be said that it has the capability of going one of two ways.

One would be to make international companies chiefs even more jittery than usual, and to make them look even more seriously at the possibility of "outsourcing" jobs to places like Halifax, Dublin and India. The second would be for Government and businesses to talk seriously about a partnership and ways of bringing more Bermudians into international companies to the benefit of everyone.

The problem is that Dr. Brown's policy idea remains unclear. While he breezily talks about overpaid-and-over-here Nordic Sven and under-appreciated-and-underpaid Bermudian Johnny, he has left Labour Minister Derrick Burgess to fill in the blanks and work out the details, which are much more complicated.

If you leave aside the hyperbole, Dr. Brown does identify a basic problem, although there are worse ones to have, when he says it is "tremendously frustrating to see people from all over the world come to Bermuda and realise unparalleled riches while my people settle for less lucrative career paths". The facts are that non-Bermudians in senior roles in international companies do very well financially, and the wealth gap between very wealthy expatriates and less well paid Bermudians can and does create tensions.

Dr. Brown puts his finger on part of the cause, which is that Bermuda's education system is failing to produce a sufficient number of people to "realise those unparalleled riches", and he is, to his credit, trying to address that.

But he says that's not enough, and believes international businesses aren't doing enough to recognise or promote Bermudian talent right now. Hence he is pushing Goodwill Plus, in which companies who now say they want to hire Bermudians but can't find them (the goodwill), will be provided with qualified but inexperienced Bermudians by Government (the plus), with the kicker that the Bermudian will then take the non-Bermudian's job after three years. This is not a new idea.

The Board of Immigration has long required the appointment of understudies where it thinks there is a qualified but inexperienced Bermudian applicant, or where it thinks a company is being dilatory about locating and training a Bermudian to replace a non-Bermudian employee.

On the other hand, international companies face a dual problem. Most want to and do hire and advance Bermudians, not least because the costs, bureaucracy and insecurity of the work permit process is almost unendurable.

And many, although not all, do hire and train Bermudians wherever and whenever they can. But the other part of the problem is this. Bermuda has a narrowly based economy dependent on highly skilled, specialized and experienced people for success. And with a population of 60,000, it is unlikely, as Dr. Brown seems to be suggesting (and it is important to emphasise "seems" because the Goodwill Plus policy is so vague) that Bermuda will ever produce enough sufficiently bright, qualified and experienced people to take all those jobs that the Svens currently hold.

That's not to say that the Government is not right to push Bermudians for jobs and to ensure that Bermudians are not barred from jobs which they are quite capable of doing. But for international businesses in particular, they need staff who can compete with anyone, because their competition is not restricted to these 20 square miles. It spans the globe, and as long as companies like AIG or Munich Re and markets like Lloyd's can recruit from around the world, Bermuda-based companies need to as well.

Dr. Brown presumably knows all of this. He must also know that a system in which every "Sven" enjoying the good life in Bermuda has a "Johnny" sitting beside him preparing to take his job won't work, not least because it is mathematically impossible, but that is the impression he has given. And he surely knows that getting education right, and not just at the primary and secondary levels, is the long term key to getting more Bermudians a chance to share in the success of Bermuda's international business sector.