After a particularly grim meeting in Swindon the other day, which was just a shade less uplifting than an undertakers' convention, I received the perfect antidote when I went to judge the area finals of the Young Enterprise competition.

I went expecting to be faced with teams of precocious swots whose accountant fathers has created them their own spreadsheets but instead I met seven groups of bright, enthusiastic and confident young people.

I swear at least five of them could go straight into business now. They demonstrated more commercial accumen in one little finger than Claire from The Apprentice has her entire body. (And if you've seen her you'll know what I'm saying.)

Each team had to produce a report about how their venture had gone and they made entertaining reading. Some of them made The Apprentice look like Ask The Family.

There were tales of back-biting, arguments, recriminations, walkouts, thefts and last-minute let-downs, in truth just about everything any normal businessman will face in an average week.

I felt sorry for the youngsters from Corsham School who seemed to have completed their task with little support from their teachers. They told me how they had had to sit down with them and explain what Young Enterprise was because they were not being taken seriously.

Fortunately the youngsters did and they came out of it with great credit and represented their school magnificently.

What impressed me was the assurance with which the young tycoons gave presentations about their ventures to an audience of about 70. They spoke with confidence and humour and were mature enough to be brutally honest about theure groups' suuccesses and failures.

When I was their age I hardly had the courage to speak to my parents let alone a room full of strangers,

I'm not sure what really qualified me to be judging their efforts. All I know about business comes from Five Live Money and Dragons Den.

I did my best to grill the the youngsters with perceptive questions during the interview stage but I am pretty sure I came across as a man who does not know what he is talking about. Not for the first time.

The winners were St Augustine's in Trowbridge and the biggest grilling of the night came when one of the teachers from Dauntsey's public school in West Lavington quizzed me rigorously on why her team had come third.

That apart, the whole evening was quite a tonic after the day's events. I wonder if any of those razor-sharp mini-entrepreneurs would fancy my next Swindon meeting instead of me?