BRIAN WILSON, the Scottish Industry Minister will lead a delegation of Scottish business leaders to California today. On Tuesday he will open a Scottish software centre in San Jose, and on Wednesday he will be in Memphis, Tennessee, to learn lessons for the expansion of Prestwick. When he touches down on British soil next Friday he might recall that only a year to the day voters were still on their way to the polls.

A Scottish Office Minister going on a foreign mission is nothing new. Michael Forsyth, Ian Lang and Malcolm Rifkind travelled the world to bang the drum for Scotland.

What is new is that Wilson is driven by a very different agenda which makes full employment an ''essential aspiration'', state intervention imperative if it is going to help, trade union representation on everything that is set up in Scotland and, according to himself, ''the ability to operate without any ideological hang ups about excessive free market economics''.

Wilson is not that unlikely an Industry Minister though better known as a radical, campaigning journalist. He had first hand experience of the vagaries of the business weathering difficulties in the West Highland Publishing Company until now 26 years on, it is a thriving successful business.

Wearing his industry cap - his other portfolios include education, the Highlands and Islands and Gaelic - he is the first to credit his predecessors for setting up Locate In Scotland in 1981, a one door inward-investment organisation aimed at maximising the flow of investment and jobs into Scotland.

He said: ''It was effective before May 1 and it is successful now.''

That is as far as the magnanimity goes. Recalling Tory predictions that inward investment would disappear if not at the prospect of a Labour Government then certainly from fear of constitutional change, Wilson said: ''We were on a trade mission to the Far East in October. No-one was in the least interested in devolution, they were interested in the new Government's more positive attitude to Europe. We have certainly disproved that negative.''

On the industrial front Wilson has a well established agenda based on five key principles. He wants to offer additional incentives to get jobs and industry back into the unemployment black spots; investment in ideas developed in Scotland; support and development in traditional Scottish industries like shipbuilding and the other maritime industries, investment in training and skills; and the expansion of the Scottish export trade.

What is very different, and much commented on is his style. There are rumblings in the Scottish Office that he is still too much of a journalist, does not yet behave as a Minister should, wants decisions made quickly, and refuses to fall into line with the establishment - whether it is Whitehall or St Andrews House.

In the field the reaction is different. Midlothian MP Eric Clarke could not speak more highly of him. He said: ''He is a first class Minister. I have had many dealings with him. During the Monktonhall crisis he could not have done more. We had access to him more or less when we wanted. He kept the pit open, he was like a breath of fresh air. He is certainly one of the successes.''

At this week's STUC Davie Falconer, the president of the GMB from the platform acknowledged Wilson's intervention in the campaign to keep refitting work at Rosyth. But the starkest example of his intervention style was only two weeks ago when he rushed to Haddington in East Lothian to face the workforce in the Mitsubishi plant which will close in June with the loss of 500 jobs.

East Lothian MP John Home Robertson said: ''Wilson insisted we should go that day, that he should not run away from bad news. Everyone involved in the sorry tale was impressed, and it was very reassuring for the workforce. Here was a Minister trying to do his best to address the immediate problems. He didn't promise miracles, but promised to do what he could and we all believed him.''

Wilson admits he finds the job frustrating at times because ''everything takes a bit more time than you think it should'' but he is adamant that he will be driven by no other agenda than what he thinks is good for the people he is trying to serve.

Wilson was a politician desperate to get hands on the handles of power. He hated the impotence of opposition, and now that he is in Government he hopes to keep them there as long as he is actively involved in politics. He said: ''The job is immensely satisfying. We can change things in a big way. We've made a difference on a lot of things without great battles though most of it gets ignored which is disappointing.''

Wilson is delighted with the success of the Welfare to Work pilot scheme on Tayside, the most successful in the United Kingdom. He claimed Welfare to Work was the first serious attempt in 25 years to defeat long-term unemployment.

He said: ''The importance of the New Deal cannot be overestimated. To spend #300m on this scheme in Scotland at a time when there are many areas where money could be spent demonstrates the determination of the Government to tackle unemployment and ensure full employability.''

Wilson is not sure what the future holds for him. He believes he has pursued an effective agenda and would like to see it through but at most he has only another year in Scotland unless he is the next Scottish Secretary.

He decided the Scottish Parliament was not for him. He said: ''I think my constituency has done well by me by giving me both the chance to be an MP and a Minister. It never occurred to me to claim squatter's rights and say I wanted to move from one Parliament to another.''