I always grab the opportunity to look around someone else’s workplace, so when I was recently in Ayr, Scotland, to present the results of a feasibility study for a new ports apprenticeship I asked if I could join an early morning tour of the port offered to delegates.

I wasn’t disappointed. The port managers present were primarily interested in what cargoes the port shifted, the depth of the channel, the types of cranes they used and so on. And we were all fascinated to hear how well the port of Ayr has done out of this winter’s bad weather: as politicians scrambled to get more grit on the roads, it was working flat out importing salt from Spain. Every cloud has a silver lining.

But I was most interested in the people, of course, and the balance between capital investment and investment in people. Modern ports are high-tech businesses and Associated British Ports, owner of the port of Ayr, is clearly committed to serious capital investment. We were shown a portable crane, for example – well-adapted to the flexibility on which the port prides itself – which cost well over half a million pounds.

So the team comes second to capital investment? Not a bit of it. Think of it in historical terms. When dock work meant emptying a ship’s hold by hard manual labour, or with very basic tools, docksides were swarming with low-skilled workers who, in truth, weren’t much valued. Had they broken a shovel, beyond getting yelled at, the capital cost was manageable. Break a £600,000 crane, however, and the position is very different.

For me, the relationship between capital investment and investment in people is really clear. It’s not a case of either/or: one without the other is simply bonkers.