Young Apprentice

Young Apprentice (Junior Apprentice in series 1) was a British reality television programme in which a group of twelve young people, aged 16 and 17, compete to win a £25,000 prize from the British business magnate Lord Sugar. The six-part series began on BBC One and BBC HD on 12 May 2010, concluding on 10 June of the same year, and also featured Nick Hewer and Karren Brady as Sugar's advisors. Karren Brady made her debut on Junior Apprentice, as it aired before she appeared on the adult version. The programme concluded with Sugar awarding the prize fund to 17-year-old Arjun Rajyagor, with Tim Ankers finishing in second place.

The second series started in October 2011, and this time featured eight episodes and twelve contestants. The series was won by Zara Brownless, with James McCullagh as runner-up.

The third series started on 1 November 2012, also with twelve contestants. The series concluded on 20 December, and was won by Ashleigh Porter-Exley, with Lucy Beauvallet as runner-up. Maria Doran and Patrick McDowell finished in joint third place.

Originally proposed in March 2008 and confirmed in June 2009, Junior Apprentice received mostly positive reviews from critics. The programme is a spin-off from the series The Apprentice, which was in turn spawned from an American series of the same name, featuring the entrepreneur Donald Trump. Sugar's role under Gordon Brown's government sparked a debate over the BBC's political impartiality regulations in the run-up to the UK 2010 election, resulting in both Junior Apprentice and the sixth regular edition of The Apprentice being delayed.

On February 7, 2013, it was confirmed via Lord Sugar's Twitter account that Series 3 of Young Apprentice was its last, stating that the BBC decided not to renew for a fourth series.^[1]

Production and broadcast

In March 2008, Sir Alan Sugar announced that he had proposed a teenage version of The Apprentice to the BBC to be broadcast around "the six, seven o'clock timeslot featuring 12 to 15-year-old kids"; however, he claimed that "nobody took any notice" of his suggestions.^[2] Twelve months later, Sugar said that he was in negotiations regarding the programme and it was officially announced by the BBC and Talkback Thames on 20 May 2009 episode of The Apprentice: You're Fired!.^[3][4] Applicants, of ages 16 and 17 and from a variety of social and educational backgrounds, were encouraged to apply via The Apprentice website in what was originally announced as a five-part series, with Sugar seeking to "promote enterprise amongst young people, as the future of our economy relies on them".^[5] In all, 28,000 people applied and ten of these were selected for the programme.^[6]

On 5 June 2009, Sugar was hired as the Labour Party Enterprise Tsar under Gordon Brown's government and assumed the title Lord Sugar.^[7] Despite debates regarding whether Sugar could continue with his role due to the corporation's political impartiality, the BBC decreed that he was able to continue to feature on The Apprentice and its related programming.^[8] However, due to this conflict of interest, both Junior Apprentice and the sixth series of The Apprentice were delayed until after the 2010 general election on 6 May 2010.^[9]

The BBC announced on 3 May 2010 that Junior Apprentice was to begin on 12 May 2010 at 21:00 on BBC One and BBC HD.^[10][11] Karren Brady, replacing Margaret Mountford, and Nick Hewer, assisted Sugar and oversaw the actions of the ten participants throughout the series.^[12] The final instalment of the six episode series was broadcast on 10 June 2010.^[13] The series was executive produced by Jo Wallace for the BBC, Mark Burnett and C. Scot Cru for Mark Burnett Productions and Sue Davidson and Michele Kurland for Talkback Thames.^[13][14]

On 28 August 2010, the BBC confirmed that a second series of the Junior Apprentice had been commissioned. The second series once again featured 16 to 17-year-olds and was an extended 8 episode format. Applications for a third series opened during the second series, and series 3 launched on 1 November 2012.

On 30 August 2012, it was reported that Sugar had axed the show to concentrate on the adult version and also due to declining ratings compared to the ordinary version of the show. Lord Sugar later confirmed on Twitter that the reports were incorrect, and that it was still unknown how long the show would last. However, in February 2013, Lord Sugar confirmed on Twitter that the BBC had indeed cancelled the show.

Format

The format of the programme is very similar to that of the regular series, but it was noted that Sugar, Brady and Hewer adopted a more gentle tone with the comparatively young participants.^[15] Aiming to win a prize of £25,000, twelve candidates participate in a series of tasks over an eight-week period. Each week, the group is divided into two teams and must compete in a task relating to business. Each team then selects a project manager, who is responsible for the leadership of the team throughout that task, and the groups are observed by either Brady or Hewer. When the task is over, the teams return to the boardroom and Lord Sugar announces the winner of the task. While the winning team are treated to a reward, Lord Sugar, Brady and Hewer discuss the failings with the team that lost. The project manager of this losing team must then select two of their colleagues to return to the boardroom and face the possibility of being fired; from the fourth week onwards, all members of the losing team automatically return to the boardroom. A further discussion is held and Lord Sugar decides which one of the three he will fire from the competition. Unlike the original version of The Apprentice, none of the fired candidate of The Junior Apprentice are filmed as riding into a taxi during their walk of shame. Instead they take their ride back home in Lord Sugar's Frontera.

This process was followed until the end of the fifth week, then there were four candidates remaining. The final task saw the four equally divided into two teams and they were accompanied by previously fired candidates. On the tasks's conclusion, Sugar immediately fired the losing team and went onto decide which of the winning candidates to reward with the prize fund. Throughout the series, the candidates reside at a Georgian townhouse in Islington.^[15]

Series 1

The first series featured ten candidates, divided into two teams initially by gender. The boys chose Instinct as their company name, and the girls chose Revolution. This was the second UK series in which every candidate had a chance to be a project manager at some point. This had previously occurred on the second series of the main Apprentice show.

Candidates

Episode summary

Week One [1.1]

• Revolution: Hibah (Project Manager), Kirsty, Zoe, Hannah and Emma.
• Instinct: Jordan (Project Manager), Arjun, Tim, Adam and Rhys.^[16]
• Task: Sell £500 of cheese to consumers from a London market.^[15][17]
• Result: Revolution set up their pitch in Covent Garden, while Instinct sold from Whitecross Street Market.^[18] Revolution decided to identify and price their cheese before going to the market, resulting in them arriving later than planned. However, on arrival, sales picked up quickly and all the girls sold hard, particularly Zoe, who was criticised for being selfish and taking many of the sales herself. By contrast, Instinct arrived at the market earlier, but spent so long identifying and pricing the cheese that they lost many customers. Tim created some ready-made lunches which proved popular, but only made a small number of them. The boys made very few sales on the stall and later had to resort to selling the rest of the cheese in bulk at massively reduced prices. In the boardroom, Instinct made a loss of £210.01 and Revolution made a profit of £143.88.^[16][19]
• Winner: Revolution.
• Reward: Dinner at Tom Aikens' restaurant.^[17]
• Brought into the boardroom: Jordan, Tim and Rhys.
• Who gets fired: Jordan, with regret, for being unable to control his team, and for making very few sales himself.^[19]
• Notes:
  • Despite no-one else on the team especially liking Zoe's personality, most of the other members of Revolution grudgingly admitted she deserved the most credit for their win. By contrast, Hibah was much more liked by her team-mates, but there was a feeling she had lacked authority in her leadership role.
  • Tim came under fire in the boardroom for attempting to blame his failure to prepare more lunchboxes on the weather, causing Lord Sugar to point out that other market stall owners have to work in similar conditions every day. Likewise, Rhys was strongly criticised for the choice of the location, but Karren defended him and pointed out that he had valid reasons for choosing Whitecross Market, and that Jordan and (to a lesser extent) Tim were more at fault for not properly exploiting it.

Week Two [1.2]

• Revolution: Adam (Project Manager), Kirsty, Zoe, Hibah and Emma.
• Instinct: Hannah (Project Manager), Arjun, Tim and Rhys.^[20]
• Task: Design and innovate a new camping product, and pitch it to the retailers Argos, Millets and Marshmallow.^[21]
• Result: Revolution created a multi-purpose storage unit/games table made from cardboard called "Flex N Store", which was a combination of several suggestions that had been brought up in the original brainstorm. Instinct invented a sledge on detachable wheels aimed at festival-goers called "Slide Stuff".^[22] Instinct's prototype was very small, and was criticised by the buyers for not looking like it would actually carry very much, but Arjun's pitches still secured orders of 3,100 units. Revolution's product was heavily criticised for not having a unique selling point and for being so flimsy that it would fall apart after the first few uses. Despite Zoe's excellent pitch, the team did not secure any orders.
• Winner: Instinct.
• Reward: Exploration of a treetop walkway across Kew Gardens, followed by a private fireworks display.^[21]
• Brought into the boardroom: Adam, Hibah and Zoe.
• Who gets fired: Hibah, with regret, for pushing her games table idea too hard, and for having a personality that did not suit the nature of business.^[21]
• Notes:
  • This was the first occasion in any series of the UK show that a team received no orders for their product. This has occurred again in later series.
  • Tim was criticised for volunteering to do the pitches and then backing out, leaving Arjun to do all three.
  • Hannah was criticised for only listening to Tim's ideas, and alienating Arjun and Rhys.
  • Nick Hewer said that he thought Emma should have been brought into the boardroom, as she had suggested making something out of cardboard, which was deemed to be one of the Flex N Store's biggest flaws.

Week Three [1.3]

• Revolution: Zoe (Project Manager), Arjun, Adam and Emma.
• Instinct: Rhys (Project Manager), Kirsty, Tim and Hannah.^[14]
• Task: Ice, decorate and sell cupcakes in London's Selfridges.^[14][23]
• Result: Revolution chose an "I heart..." theme for their cupcakes, while Instinct chose a fashion theme.^[24] Revolution were criticised for taking a long time to deliver cupcakes, but still manager to make a profit of £15.15. On Instinct, Rhys offered no leadership and Kirsty made many of the team's decisions herself. Despite selling hard, Instinct made a loss of £89.74.^[24]
• Left: Adam, as he had fallen ill during the task, and was too unwell to continue with the competition.^[25]
• Winner: Revolution.
• Reward: Afternoon tea with the entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson.^[25]
• Brought into the boardroom: Rhys, Tim and Hannah.
• Who gets fired: Rhys, for losing control of the team, and for introducing a fashion theme, which had nothing to do with cupcakes.^[23]
• Notes:
  • Despite Revolution's win, they were criticised for not charging more for personalised cupcakes.
  • At one point, Lord Sugar appeared to be about to fire Tim, as he had taken a backseat throughout all of the tasks. Tim responded by saying that he would become the project manager in the next task, no matter what is was. After Rhys' firing, Lord Sugar informed Tim that he would definitely make him the project manager in the next task.

Week Four [1.4]

• Revolution: Emma (Project Manager), Arjun and Zoe.
• Instinct: Tim (Project Manager), Kirsty and Hannah.^[26]
• Task: Negotiate deals with six artists, then select two to sell at exhibition.
• Result: Revolution selected the works of Tom Lewis and Mark Melvin for their exhibition on Pall Mall and Instinct, stationed on Brick Lane, opted for pieces by Lewis and Sarah Kate Wilson; Lewis opted to work with Revolution, resulting in Instinct substituting him with photography by Andy Taylor Smith.^[27] Instinct earned £2247.30 from five pieces of art and Revolution, selling twelve items, profited £6,005.^[28]
• Winner: Revolution.
• Reward: A visit to tailor Timothy Everest, and have personalised outfits made.^[27]
• Brought into the boardroom: Tim, Hannah and Kirsty.
• Who gets fired: Hannah, for not having shown anything spectacular on any of the tasks, despite having amazing qualifications.^[26]
• Notes:
  • In the boardroom, it was revealed that artist Tom Lewis actually thought that his work would sell better on Brick Lane, and only chose Revolution because he was impressed by Zoe's knowledge of the art world. Kirsty, on Instinct, had not tried to charm him at all, and had focussed entirely on figures, barely paying any attention to his art.

Week Five [1.5]

• Revolution: Arjun (Project Manager), Zoe and Emma.
• Instinct: Kirsty (Project Manager) and Tim.^[29]
• Task: Meet six designers in Amsterdam, select some of their products and return to the UK to sell them.^[29][30]
• Result: After some negotiations between the two teams, Revolution decided to pitch some baby comforters and candle lamps with cutlery sets while Instinct had bicycles and dog transportation accessories to pitch to companies such as House of Fraser and Liberty & Co.^[31] The task ended with Revolution gaining £10,171.45 and Instinct earning £39,785.09.^[32]
• Winner: Instinct.
• Reward: None - the two members of Instinct were merely sent home to prepare for the final.
• Brought into the boardroom: Arjun, Zoe and Emma.
• Who gets fired: Emma, with 'a heavy heart and much regret' for being rude to the designers of the products, as well as being generally less impressive than Arjun and Zoe throughout the series.^[32]
• Notes:
  • Instinct's win of £39,785.09 was at the time the biggest win any team had ever had on the series, although it has since been exceeded.
  • Not including the final, in every task this series the winning project manager has been female, and the losing project manager male.

Week Six [1.6]

• Kirsty and Zoe's team: Kirsty and Zoe (joint Project Managers), Jordan, Hibah and Hannah.
• Arjun and Tim's team: Arjun and Tim (joint Project Managers), Adam, Emma and Rhys.^[33]
• Task: To develop a new brand of bottled water and its accompanying advertising campaign before presenting the product to a group of industry professionals.^[34]
• Result: Kirsty and Zoe targeted the teenage market, with a brand of ozonated water that they called 'Drip Drop'. Arjun and Tim pitched their product at people in their twenties, and named their product 'A Bottle Of Water', aiming to keep their brand as simple as possible.^[33] Both teams were generously praised for their hard work and strong campaigns, but Arjun and Tim's team ultimately won, as Kirsty and Zoe's packaging was not right for their product, and their ozonated water put people off.
• Fired: Kirsty and Zoe, for losing the task, and the following additional reasons:^[35]
  • Zoe, for being the most accountable for the loss due to having been behind most of the team's ideas, and for her abrasive attitude.
  • Kirsty, for taking a backseat and allowing Zoe to take over the whole task, and for her generally unexceptional track record outside of her victory as project manager the previous week.
• Runner-up: Tim; despite doing very well in the last few tasks, his weak performances in the first half of the series ultimately counted against him.
• Hired: Arjun, for his very impressive track record throughout the series, although Lord Sugar said that it was a very tough choice between Arjun and Tim.^[35]
• Notes:
  • Despite Arjun and Tim's win, they were criticised for the high margin they had given the retailer, which was said to be naive, as they had not factored in the cost of broadcasting the advert.
  • This was the first occasion in which both the winner and runner-up of a UK Apprentice series have been male, and to date the only time this has happened in a task-based finale. The only other occasion with a male winner and runner-up was in the Series 8 finale, which was interview-based.

Results table

Key:

     – Member of Instinct

     – Member of Revolution

     The candidate received the £25,000 investment and won Junior Apprentice.

     The candidate was the runner-up.

     The candidate was on the winning team.

     The candidate was on the losing team.

     The candidate won as project manager on her team.

     The candidate lost as project manager on his team.

     The candidate was brought to the final boardroom.

     The candidate was fired.

     The candidate lost as project manager and was fired.

     The contestant left the competition due to illness.

Series 2

Twelve candidates took part in this series, and were initially divided by gender as normal. The boys chose the name Atomic for their team name, and the girls chose Kinetic. Two candidates - Mahamed and Ben - never had the chance to be project manager.

Candidates

Episode summary

Week One [2.1]

• Project managers: Harry H. (Atomic) and Hayley (Kinetic).
• Task: Sell frozen treats on Southend-on-Sea (for the boys) and Chessington World of Adventures (for the girls). The team that makes the most profit wins.
• Result: In the first week, the candidates, segregated into teams by sex with the boys choosing to call themselves "Atomic" and the girls calling themselves "Kinetic." Atomic went with a "Pirate" theme and were well organised during with their production process with the figures on how many litres to make solved efficiently by Harry M. and despite a slow start, they managed to sell all 60l of ice cream at Southend-on-Sea. By comparison, Kinetic who went with a "Treat and Trim" theme were severely disorganised while producing their ice cream and as well as struggling to solve their figures, they also had to ditch 40% of their mixture when the purchasing sub-team were unable to supply enough fruit resulting in only 50l out of 80l being made. However, their location at Chessington World of Adventures proved to be a very good one, and despite not selling all of their ice cream, their more daring price (£3 and 20p for a cone, compared to £1.50 for the boys) strategy paid off, with Kinetic sweeping to victory with a profit of £708.34, as compared to Atomic's £559.25.
• Winner: Kinetic.
• Reward: Zorbing.
• Brought into the boardroom: Harry H., James, and Mahamed.
• Who gets fired: Mahamed, for his aggressive manner and numerous false claims about what he contributed to the task.
• Notes:
  • This was the first occasion since Series 5 of the adult edition that the losing project manager was not fired in Week 1, and only the second time overall that a male project manager was not fired after losing first the task (the first being in Series 4, when Alex Wotherspoon lost as project manager on the first task, but escaped being fired).
  • Upon hearing the girl's production mayhem, Lord Sugar described it as "Forget Ben and Jerry, this is more Tom and Jerry" and when the results were revealed, he declared he was almost sorry for the boys.
  • It was noted that had it not been for a mix-up where the Kinetic subteam didn't realize they had two extra tubs and had to resort to selling it off for 20p a scoop at the end of the day, Kinetic could have made potentially more than twice as much profit as Atomic.
  • While Kinetic may have won, their selling strategies were criticised by Lord Sugar, Nick and the public, which included charging extra for cones and adding additional toppings to people's ice creams without asking. Sugar also felt that while Hayley had done a reasonably good job as project manager, Zara and Haya were the ones most deserving of the credit for the team's victory, due to their pricing strategy and strong sales figures.
  • While Lord Sugar felt that Harry H.'s leadership had been questionable and that James made a severe error with the pricing, Mahamed sealed his fate by claiming that he was the best salesperson on the team (when in fact the figures showed he sold £62 worth and Lewis managed to sell £7 more, while the remaining team members each managed to sell more than their total score combined), and that he was wholly responsible for the "Pirate" theme which Atomic used to promote their ice cream (as James came up with the theme, while Mahamed was responsible for coming up with the mobile team's "treasure chest" design). After Mahamed's firing, Lord Sugar warned James about his brash and cocky behaviour.

Week Two [2.2]

• Project managers: Lewis (Atomic) and Gbemi (Kinetic).
• Task: To create a product for the baby and parents market. Their products must be imaginative, showing a gap in the market for the product.
• Result: Atomic, led by Lewis, created a hippo-shaped container for bottles calling it "Harris the Hippo", while Kinetic, under Gbemi's leadership, created a cushion for supporting young babies calling it "Comfy Curve". Both of the team leaders gave poor pitches to two of the three major retailers that Lord Sugar had arranged appointments with, and gave the last pitch to someone else (Harry H. for the boys, and Haya for the girls). In the end, Atomic got 5,200 orders from two of the retailers and Kinetic got orders from only one retailer who ordered 7,500 orders worth.
• Winner: Kinetic.
• Reward: Break Dancing lesson from Diversity.
• Brought into the boardroom: Lewis, Harry M., and Ben.
• Who gets fired: Ben, with regret, for (despite his claims that he tried to contribute as much as possible during the task) his sub-par contribution on both tasks, and for his somewhat passive nature.
• Notes:
  • Despite Kinetic's win, Lord Sugar noted Gbemi's poor leadership and pitching, and held Haya's pitch as what ultimately gave the girls the win.
  • In the final boardroom, Lewis actually admitted that Lord Sugar would be justified in firing him. Despite this, Sugar admired the fact that Lewis had been willing to take risks and put himself in the forefront of the task, and this ultimately saved him from being fired.

Week Three [2.3]

• Team Reshuffle: Harry H and James move to Kinetic. Hannah, Gbemi, and Zara move to Atomic.
• Project managers: Hannah (Atomic) and Lizzie (Kinetic).
• Task: To set up their own floristry business and sell to the public, and as a bonus, pitch to a hotel, a theatre, and a hair salon.
• Result: Atomic got the theatre and the salon, but Zara blew the negotiations with the hotel by increasing the price Hannah had told her to offer, meaning that Kinetic got the hotel deal, however, before they did, they had to reduce their price even further after the hotel were unhappy with the arrangements they were provided. Atomic chose to pursue a 2x profit margin on their flowers (Harry M. wanted a 3x profit margin, howerver, much to Harry's annoyance, Hannah and Gbemi ignored him), while Kinetic went for a 3x margin. Kinetic's decision was ultimately vindicated in the final results, as despite Atomic getting the two business deals and a separate £150 sale by Harry M., they lost to Kinetic by £12.69.
• Winner: Kinetic.
• Reward: A chocolate dinner at Picadilly.
• Brought into the boardroom: Hannah, Zara, and Harry M..
• Who gets fired: Hannah, with regret, for bringing Zara and Harry M. back into the boardroom instead of Lewis and/or Gbemi. Despite the generally positive comments about her leadership, Lord Sugar considered this a fatal mistake on Hannah's part.
• Notes:
  • Lord Sugar told Lewis and Gbemi they had been lucky to escape the boardroom, and that had either one of them been brought back instead of Harry M. or Zara they would have been fired, as Lewis had sold the least and contributed little to the task overall, while Gbemi was responsible for the team's overly conservative pricing (though Hannah inexplicably tried to claim that it was in fact Gbemi who had made the £150 sale rather than Harry M., despite not being present herself and the footage showing otherwise). Lord Sugar saw no reason whatsoever to fire Zara, and decided that despite his continued failure to get on with his team-mates there was insufficient evidence to justify firing Harry M. in the face of his sales prowess.
  • When Zara and Harry M. returned to the house, Lewis was very upset and stormed off, although it was unclear if this was due to the departure of Hannah (who he had said that he definitely wanted back), or the return of Harry M. (who Lewis was known not to like).
  • At the time, this was the earliest occasion in any series that the eventual winner had been brought into the boardroom (previously, this record was held by Yasmina Siadatan, who was in the final boardroom in Week 4.) In Series 8, this record was equalled by Ricky Martin, who was also in the final boardroom in Week 3.

Week Four [2.4]

• Team Reshuffle: Zara and Gbemi move to Kinetic. Haya and Hayley move to Atomic.
• Project managers: Haya (Atomic) and James (Kinetic).
• Task: Pick two gadgets, and sell them at an exhibition for over-50s.
• Result: Both teams wanted a designer shopping trolley, but Kinetic got it after Lewis unwittingly sabotaged Atomic's pitch by asking irrelevant questions and behaving in a skittish, unprofessional manner. Kinetic therefore got the trolley and a handheld vacuum cleaner, while Atomic had a pie making machine and a bird house with a built-in camera (Harry M. and Hayley wanted an inflatable support pillow instead of the pie maker, but Haya refused to listen to them) . Both teams struggled to sell anything for the first half of the day, and had to resort to drastically cutting prices as the day went on. The standout performers were Harry H. and Lizzie on Kinetic, who overcame their lack of a discount with very effective product demonstrations of the vacuum cleaner, and Harry M. on Atomic, who single-handedly made almost half of his team's revenue by selling five bird boxes to another exhibitor at the end of the day. Kinetic won out with a profit of £1,138.77, largely due to Harry H. and Lizzie's work with the vacuum cleaners, while Atomic suffered their fourth successive defeat after raising just £847.42.
• Winner: Kinetic.
• Reward: Watching Magic tricks from Dynamo trapped in their own bubble in the London Eye.
• Brought into the boardroom: Haya, Hayley, and Lewis.
• Who gets fired: Lewis, for his lack of pitching skill, along with his generally very weak track record throughout the competition.
• Notes:
  • Despite being credited for securing the trolley for Kinetic, Zara came in for heavy criticism in the boardroom for not managing to make a single sale, making her the least successful salesperson on either team.
  • Although Haya attempted to pin much of the blame on Harry M. in the boardroom, accusing him of making a bad recommendation with the bird box after the trolley fell through, she decided to bring back Lewis for his mistakes during the trolley pitch and Hayley for being the least effective salesperson in the task, which was according to Lord Sugar, the correct decision.
  • Haya was considered the person most at fault for the failure of the task, due to her insistence on selling the pie maker along with her failure to control Lewis. She was ultimately saved by her generally impressive track record throughout the competition.
  • Haya's loss as Project Manager here made this the only occasion in the series that she was on a losing team. Lizzie was now the only person who had been on the winning team in every task (although after this task, she was never again on a winning team), while Harry M. was still without a single victory, as was Lewis prior to his firing.
  • While Hayley was not in any serious danger of being fired, Lord Sugar warned her that she had slipped into the background since winning as project manager on the first task, and that she needed to step up her game.

Week Five [2.5]

• Team Reshuffle: Zara and Harry H. move to Atomic. Harry M. moves to Kinetic.
• Project managers: Zara (Atomic) and Harry M. (Kinetic).
• Task: Create their own brand of deodorant, and with it a can and a television advert
• Result: Zara was initially weak in her leadership role and let her team-mates dictate the ideas for their campaign, but she finally took control of the team when it came to making their advert. By contrast, Harry M. was much more autocratic and didn't pay much attention to the advice his team-mates were giving him, which eventually led to Gbemi and Lizzie (who were designing the can) deciding to return the favour and not pay attention to his ideas on the can design. Lord Sugar said that this was the closest decision in any of the advertising tasks since the UK Apprentice began, but ultimately handed Atomic their first win based on the fact that Kinetic's advert and can design were both badly made and did not stand out.
• Winner: Atomic.
• Reward: Stunt flying at Lord Sugar's airfield.
• Brought into the boardroom: Harry M., Gbemi, and James.
• Who gets fired: Gbemi, for her poor job of designing the can (despite her claimed design expertise and the fact Lizzie was helping her design the can), along with her insubordination toward Harry M. and her generally aggressive attitude.
• Notes:
  • Although Lizzie did help Gbemi design the can, Harry M. didn't bring her back due to her enthusiasm and expert presentation skills during the pitch.
  • Lord Sugar considered firing Harry M. for his clearly poor leadership during the task, but was ultimately saved by his professional salesmanship. Likewise, James also got into trouble for his negativity toward Harry M., but survived by virtue of his victory as project manager the previous week, and the fact that Sugar felt Gbemi was more at fault in terms of her attitude.
  • Harry M.'s loss here meant that he had lost five tasks in a row, including a loss as a project manager, hence making him a joint Apprentice UK record holder with Vincent Disneur from Series 7. (Katie Hopkins from Series 3 and Tom Pellereau from Series 7 also lost five tasks in a row, but these did not include losses as project manager.)
  • This was Harry M.'s first occasion working with Lizzie, making him the first (and only) candidate on Young Apprentice to work with every other candidate from his series on a team at least once. (Only one candidate on the adult version - Jim Eastwood in Series 7 - has achieved this.)
  • This was Lizzie's first occasion on a losing team, though she did remain the only candidate not to have been brought back into the final boardroom so far.

Week Six [2.6]

• Team Reshuffle: Lizzie and Harry M. move to Atomic. Harry H. and Haya move to Kinetic.
• Project managers: Lizzie (Atomic) and Haya (Kinetic).
• Task: Both teams are given just ten hours to find ten items for ten waxworks. Whichever team spent the least money would win
• Result: Kinetic immediately left Tussauds, and initially suffered a lack of organization, with Haya not setting a specific list of who should buy what, which nearly resulted in the team buying two three-piece suits for Tussauds' Justin Bieber waxwork, but the team generally negotiated well, with James in particular being a stand-out. One item which caused the team trouble was a Dashiki, which they spent the day fruitlessly searching for after Harry H. was mistakenly told it was an Arabic garment (instead of an African one). Despite being initially more organized, Atomic's sub-team consisting of Hayley and Zara wasted a lot of time travelling to and from Croydon in order to obtain a pocketwatch which they paid wildly over the odds for, under the mistaken belief that it had to be made from gold. On top of that, Harry M. led the team on a wild goose chase to buy the suit, continually asking adult tailors even after repeatedly being told that they would need to ask a children's tailor for a suit in Bieber's dimensions. Lizzie also made a serious mistake by deciding not to negotiate any discount on a set of shoes near the end of the day, resulting in a massive fine (Lord Sugar noting that they would have actually received less of a fine by just not buying the shoes). The end result of these errors was that Atomic suffered a heavy defeat, spending £1,480.87 compared to Kinetic's £969.10 outlay.
• Winner: Kinetic.
• Reward: Being makeovered, then photographed by a professional photographer.
• Brought into the boardroom: Lizzie, Hayley, and Zara.
• Who gets fired: Hayley, due to concerns that she was too quiet and polite, and for having continued to take a backseat on the tasks despite Lord Sugar warning her two weeks previously.
• Notes:
  • Harry M. got criticised in the boardroom for his mistakes during the search for the suit, but Lizzie decided to let him go back to the house, feeling he had been the best negotiator.
  • When Lizzie decided to bring back Hayley and Zara, Hayley attempted to persuade Lizzie to bring Harry M. back instead of her because he had lost every single task. Lizzie seriously considered doing this (having implied prior to the boardroom that she didn't particularly want to bring back Hayley despite her weak performance, as the two were close friends), but Lord Sugar interceded and sent Harry M. back to the house before Lizzie could decide anything.
  • When Zara attempted to claim credit for the team's correct identification of the Dashiki and then refused to admit fault on her decision to go to Croydon, an annoyed Lord Sugar came close to firing her; however she was ultimately saved by her generally very strong track record throughout the competition. In fact, the idea to phone the library was Harry M.'s idea.
  • Harry M.'s loss here meant that he had lost six tasks in a row, a new record for any series of the UK show.

Week Seven [2.7]

• Team Reshuffle: Harry H. moves to Atomic. Zara moves to Kinetic.
• Project managers: Harry H. (Atomic) and James (Kinetic).
• Task: Lord Sugar arrived at the candidates' house and gave them their task; to produce two flavours of popcorn and market them to Odeon Cinemas, the Jet2.com airline, and Morrisons supermarkets. He then informed the candidates that only two people would advance to the final, meaning that the entire losing team would be fired, along with one person from the winning team.
• Result: After one last team reshuffle, James became the leader of Kinetic, and Harry H. the leader of Atomic. Kinetic created a type of Mediterranean popcorn called "La Popcorn," while Atomic created an American-inspired popcorn called "Empire State Popcorn" (Harry M. wanted to call it "Smoochies", only to be ignored). The results were fairly close: Atomic got 95,000 worth of bag orders from all 3 retailers, but whilst Jet2.com didn't order any bags at all, Morrisons ordered 50,000 bags of each of the 2 flavours from Kinetic who got an overall order for around 120,000 bags
• Winner: Kinetic.
• Who gets fired (1st time): All the members of Atomic (Lizzie, Harry H., and Harry M.).
• Who gets fired (2nd time): Haya, with regret, for staying in the background throughout the task
• Notes:
  • This task marked the highest number of candidates fired in one episode of any series of The Apprentice. It still holds this record to date.
  • This loss made Harry M. the least successful candidate and most surviving in any incarnation of The Apprentice to date, having been present on seven tasks and lost every single one, though Lord Sugar told him he was a very strong candidate and did not deserve to hold such a record.
  • James' victory in both this task and in Week 4's task made him the only boy to manage a team successfully in either of the first two series (not counting Arjun and Tim's joint victory in the final of Series 1), and the first (and ultimately only) Young or Junior Apprentice candidate to hold a 2-0 record as project manager. By contrast, Harry H. become the first Young or Junior Apprentice candidate to lose twice as project manager.
  • There was no reward and no final boardroom as such in this episode; all of Atomic were dismissed upon the announcement of the task results, and the selection of the two finalists followed immediately afterwards. Zara was easily selected as the first finalist, as neither James nor Haya felt that she deserved to be fired, and she was deemed to have been a very strong performer on almost every task. Though Lord Sugar indicated that he felt Haya had actually been more consistent overall than James, James's two victories as project manager ended up earning him the other finalists' spot.

Week Eight [2.8]

• Team Atomic: James with Hayley, Lewis, Hannah, Harry H, and Lizzie.
• Team Kinetic: Zara with Ben, Haya, Harry M., Gbemi, and Mahamad.
• Task: The two remaining candidates are given the task to design a new video game with the help of all the candidates from this series.
• Result: The teams got to deciding and each team had many suggestions. In Atomic, Lewis came up a seaside-based game where they had to stop seagulls eating food, Hayley came up with a looking-after-horse game, and Lizzie came up with a puzzle game where they had to stare at a room for a few seconds and find what's missing. Atomic were originally going to go for the puzzle game, but James came up with an office-based game, and despite the market research had found more people would play the puzzle game, James decided to stick with the office game, calling it "Crazy Cabinet". In Kinetic, the team decided to do a game with an animal in it. (Mahamad wanted a zombie game, but the rest of the team disagreed.) Haya came up with the character of a pig (since she was a vegetarian), which the rest of the team agreed. Along with the pig, they did an idea for an evil butcher and called their game "Piggy Panic". The next day, the teams launched their viral ads in front of Lord Sugar and an audience of gaming experts. Both teams gave both good viral ads and presentations and the experts were impressed. In the boardroom, Lord Sugar thought James's game was better placed for future add-on revenue, though also believed that Zara's game had more merchandising potential.
• Runner-up: James, for not being able to present any specific plan as to what he intended to do with the prize fund on offer, beyond expressing a desire to study economics.
• Hired: Zara, for her outstanding track record throughout the contest, and for having a detailed and specific plan about how she intended to expand her business, and what she intended to do with the money.
• Notes:
  • Due to Zara's victory, Harry M. was technically on the winning team for the first and only time this series.
  • After the episode aired, Lord Sugar indicated on his Twitter feed that he was not entirely happy with the decision to only have a two-person finale. Likely because of this, the following year's series reverted to having four finalists.

Results table

     The candidate received the £25,000 investment and won Young Apprentice.

     The candidate was the runner-up.

     The candidate won as project manager on his/her team.

     The candidate lost as project manager on his/her team.

     The candidate was on the winning team (or, in Week 7, managed to avoid being fired).

     The candidate was on the losing team.

     The candidate was brought to the final boardroom.

     The candidate was on the losing team and was fired.

     The candidate lost as project manager and was fired.

     The candidate was on the winning team and was fired.

Series 3

Series 3 was initially expected to air in October 2012, but Sugar later announced on Twitter that it would be in November. Twelve candidates are taking part in the series and have been initially divided by gender as normal. The third series started on 1 November 2012 at 20:00 on BBC One.

Candidates

Episode summary

Week One [3.1]

• Project Managers: Patrick (Odyssey) and Ashleigh (Platinum).
• Task: To sort through discarded clothes and turn them into profit.
• Result: Odyssey got off to a strong start, as team leader Patrick had a lot of experience in the fashion industry. However, as he was the only one on his team to know anything about it, he had to spend a lot of time telling the others what could sell, which left less time for him to lead the team. Patrick also designed a kimono/wetsuit, which drew customers to the stall, but failed to sell. Halfway through the day, Patrick made the decision to leave the shopping centre they were selling at to try their luck selling to retailers. They had little success doing this however, and had to resort to selling all their customized stock to one retailer for £40, losing nearly £100 on the cost of creating them. On the girls' team, Ashleigh led from the front and made firm decisions, but the clothes they chose did not sell as well as on the boys' team. Nonetheless, the sub-team at the shopping centre managed to attract many customers, and eventually the team made a profit of £453.36, while Odyssey made a profit of £330.37.
• Winner: Platinum.
• Reward: A speedboat trip on the Thames.
• Brought into the boardroom: Patrick, David and Max.
• Who gets fired: Max, for selling only £14 out of the team's £501 takings, devoting most of his time to stacking the stall despite fantastic academic qualifications with 11a* and because Lord Sugar felt he was "meant for better things".
• Notes:
  • Patrick was heavily criticised for not being a strong leader, for wasting time designing a useless kimono/wetsuit and for making the decision to leave the shopping centre where they would have made more money. He was saved from firing because he was the only person in the team who understood the fashion industry at all and because Lord Sugar knew how difficult it was to the lead the very first task, but warned that if Patrick appeared in the boardroom again, he may "not be as lenient".
  • Steven sold the best out of the two teams, with over £100 at the shopping centre with Andrew selling second best at the car boot sale.
  • When Patrick and David returned to the house after the task, they received a particularly enthusiastic reaction from the other candidates.
  • In every series of Young Apprentice, the girls' team won the first task.

Week Two [3.2]

• Team re-shuffle: Maria moves to Odyssey, Steven moves to Platinum.
• Task: To design and create a cookery book, then pitch it to three retailers.
• Project Managers: Sean (Odyssey) and Lucy (Platinum).
• Result: Maria suggested that Odyssey create a cookbook aimed at professional women. Andrew did not agree but everybody else did. This idea was badly received by the focus group, but Maria persuaded Sean to go with it anyway, as she thought that it was better to have a target market. The resulting book, while produced fairly professionally, was strongly criticised due to the cover not even making clear that it was a cookbook. On Platinum, the team came up with a book called #Where's Mummy?, which was aimed at people leaving home for the first time, and was designed to tie in with Twitter and other forms of social media. Lucy did not get on with the sub-team of Amy, Alice and Ashleigh and frequently argued with them, and when the book was produced, it contained many spelling errors that the clients were not impressed by. However, Navdeep delivered strong pitches for the cookbook, and Platinum secured orders from all three retailers, with a final total of 7,500 orders. On Odyssey, Maria and Andrew fronted the first two pitches, which seemingly went down well with the clients and with the rest of the team. However, Sean made the unusual decision to change the pitchers to Patrick and David for the third pitch, which did not go so well. Odyssey ultimately only got 800 orders, from just one of the retailers.
• Winner: Platinum.
• Reward: A trip to London's only dessert bar.
• Brought into the boardroom: Sean, Maria and David.
• Who gets fired: Sean, for his poor leadership, weak-willed decisions, and for bringing David back into the boardroom instead of Patrick.
• Notes:
  • This was the first occasion since Series 5 that the losing project manager was fired on the second task (although in early years this was a lot more common, with the losing project manager being fired in Week 2 in four out of the first five series). Coincidentally, Sean was fired for exactly the same reason that his Series 5 counterpart Rocky Andrews was; namely presiding over a crushing defeat on a task that he should have been an expert in, and bringing the wrong people back into the boardroom.
  • This was the fourth series in succession that the same team had lost both the first two tasks, an occurrence that prior to Series 7, had only occurred in Series 1.
  • Lord Sugar implied that if Sean had brought Patrick into the final boardroom instead of David, he would not have been fired.
  • David is the second person on the UK series of The Apprentice to be in the final boardroom in both the first two weeks. The only other person this has happened to is Leon Doyle in Series 7.
  • Unusually, this episode contained no clips of Karren and Nick commenting on camera about the teams' progress on the task.

Week Three [3.3]

• Team re-shuffle: David moves to Platinum, Alice and Navdeep move to Odyssey.
• Project Managers: Steven (Platinum) and Andrew (Odyssey).
• Task: To buy a list of ten items for the Coliseum Theatre.
• Result: Platinum got out to an early start, getting some relatively good discounts on their first few items, but things were marred by infighting among the sub-team of David, Amy and Lucy. The team also struggled to find some of the more expensive items on the list, and were late back to the Coliseum. None of the Odyssey members started buying anything until three hours in, with the sub-team of Patrick, Maria and Navdeep spending a further three hours doing research. Their research did pay off however, as they got some significant discounts on the items that they did buy. Ultimately the teams both bought only five of the ten items each. However, Platinum were cost dearly by being late and not buying a second-hand car, the most expensive item on the list and correspondingly the one with the biggest fine. Platinum's total spend was £2,204, and Odyssey's total spend was £2,033.
• Winner: Odyssey.
• Reward: Shopping spree at Hamleys.
• Brought into the boardroom: Steven, David and Amy.
• Who gets fired: Amy, for her extreme abrasiveness, refusal to take any criticism of her actions, and having been generally unimpressive in the prior tasks.
• Notes:
  • Despite their victory, Lord Sugar was not happy with Odyssey's performance, noting that the fines they received outweighed the amount they had actually spent.
  • Amy viciously attacked Steven and especially David in the boardroom, which ultimately played a large part in Lord Sugar's decision to fire her over the two boys. Karren also noted that she had been arguably the most culpable person in the arguments between the two Platinum sub-teams in the previous task.
  • David became the first person in UK Apprentice history to appear in the boardroom three times in the first three tasks. He is also the only remaining candidate who has not won a task. By contrast, Alice and Navdeep have not lost a task yet.
  • Andrew and Maria frequently argued on the task and in the boardroom. During the treat, they both admitted on camera that they did not get on, but had no qualms about working with one another.
  • Amy's firing made her the only girl in any series of Young Apprentice never to have been a project manager. In Series 1, everyone was a project manager at some point, and in Series 2, the only two candidates who were never project manager were both male.
  • This was Andrew's only win in the series.

Week Four [3.4]

• Project Managers: David (Platinum) and Alice (Odyssey).
• Task: Running an afternoon tea business at a stately home.
• Result: Odyssey decided on a 1940s theme at a premium price, while Platinum went with a theme based around Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter's tea party, and much cheaper pricing. Things generally went smoothly on Odyssey, though there was a major argument between Alice and Maria over the pricing, as Alice wanted to offer discounts for senior citizens, while Maria felt everyone should pay full price. They struggled to attract customers as the day went on, and had to resort to slashing prices as the task drew to a close. Despite the price cutting, it only managed to pull in 2 extra customers. On Platinum, David had trouble effectively leading the team, which resulted in Ashleigh making a lot of the decisions: on the second day, their tea service rapidly descended into chaos, with David still struggling to lead the team, and customers failing to be served in a timely manner. However, the service smoothed out as the day progressed and they took over £100 more than Odyssey. Despite their better overall execution of the task, Odyssey spent £100 more monet, which proved decisive in the end figures. Odyssey had a profit of £91, and Platinum had a profit of £316, more than 3 times the amount of Odyssey.
• Winner: Platinum.
• Reward: Swimming with sharks.
• Brought into the boardroom: Alice, Maria and Navdeep.
• Who gets fired: Alice, for failing to control the team's spending, for having a confusing theme, and for not staying in touch with the sub-team during the market research.
• Notes:
  • While commended by Lord Sugar for coming up with a creative theme, Karren Brady warned David that he really had Ashleigh and Lucy to thank for the win with Sugar adding that David's team bowed him "right out of trouble".
  • Lord Sugar sharply criticized Odyssey for their unimpressive-looking cakes and sandwiches saying that despite Platinum spending under £70 on their ingredients compared to £160, "their cakes and their ideas leave yours standing"
  • The three girls in the final boardroom got into a heated argument, which caused Lord Sugar to reprimand them on their unprofessional behaviour. Maria in particular was given a heavy warning, with Sugar reminding her that she had previously been warned about her abrasiveness.
  • While Lord Sugar indicated that he thought Andrew should have been brought back into the boardroom instead of Navdeep, since the cakes he baked were deemed to be unimpressive, Navdeep was warned that she had spent too much time in the background, and needed to step up in the following task.
  • This task was David's first and only win as well as Alice and Navdeep's first loss (and in Alice's case, her only loss, as she was fired on this task.)

Week Five [3.5]

• Team re-shuffle: Andrew moves to Platinum, Steven moves to Odyssey.
• Project Managers: Ashleigh (Platinum) and Navdeep (Odyssey).
• Task: Create a children's club experience, and sell the rights to a series of holiday providers.
• Result: Ashleigh quickly decided on an idea which involved children using their bodies to paint on a giant canvas. The other members of her team did not consider this innovative and Lucy came up with an alternate idea which would have involved dance routines, an idea that David backed, but Ashleigh bluntly overruled them. Odyssey's idea was based around science lessons which would allow the kids to create things which they could take home, though the team struggled with their financial figures, which led to doubts about whether the experience would be commercially viable. Despite these doubts, Odyssey scored a comprehensive victory, earning £10,950 worth of orders from the three holiday providers, while Platinum's experience only got £470 worth of orders from one provider in a loss that Lord Sugar described as a "complete and utter annhilation".
• Winner: Odyssey.
• Reward: Trip to a top perfumery.
• Brought into the boardroom: Ashleigh, Andrew and David.
• Who gets fired: David, for his disastrous track record in the competition, and for not doing a stronger job of backing up Lucy in arguing against the theme, despite an energetic performance in the presentations.
• Notes:
  • This is the biggest victory in all series of Young Apprentice, with a 23.2:1 ratio difference and in both adult and teenage series, is the second biggest behind Venture's 800,000 to 0 victory in Series 7 of the adult series.
  • Nick Hewer commended David for his role in Platinum's presentation, noting that he added a lot of energy to an initially lifeless demonstration, though this did not save him from being fired.
  • Lord Sugar decided to base his decision primarily on the three boardroom candidates' past records, rather than this task. This immediately saved Ashleigh from being fired, as while Sugar considered her to be the person most at fault for this loss and was concerned that she showed no understanding of why her team failed (in particular, Ashleigh continued to claim that they had a better product than Odyssey despite the overwhelming loss), he in fact considered her to have the strongest track record of all the candidates thus far. Andrew on the other hand came dangerously close to being fired, as Sugar felt that he was more of a "ducker and diver" and had been lucky to have avoided the boardroom up to that point.
  • This task made Ashleigh the fourth candidate in the history of the UK Apprentice franchise (and the first in Young Apprentice) to be Project Manager for a second time while there were still people in the competition who had not been Project Manager yet. The previous candidates to do this were Tim Campbell in Series 1, Claire Young in Series 4 and Zoe Beresford in Series 7.
  • Lucy is now the sole remaining candidate not to have been in the final boardroom after any of the tasks.
  • This task was Steven's first occasion working with Maria, making him the third candidate in the history of the UK Apprentice franchise (and the second in Young Apprentice) to work with everyone from his series on a team at least once. The previous candidates to do this were Jim Eastwood in Series 7 and Harry Maxwell from Young Apprentice Series 2.

Week Six [3.6]

• Team re-shuffle: Andrew and Lucy move to Odyssey, Maria and Patrick move to Platinum.
• Project Managers: Maria (Platinum) and Andrew (Odyssey).
• Task: Create a new brand of hair product, together with an accompanying advertising campaign.
• Result: Maria decided on a deliberately tacky hairspray brand called "Strexy," and decided to play up the tackiness in their campaign. Ashleigh thought this was a bad idea and attempted to take control of the task on the second day, leading to much friction between her and Maria during the filming of their advertising video. Their campaign was generally praised, though it was felt that the "girl power" message of their advert was rather dated. Andrew came up with a brand of hair gel called "Chameleon," which was supposed to appeal to people wanting to stand out from the crowd, only for the team to realise too late that this posed a problem in that chameleons actually blend into the background. Andrew also decided to incorporate a joke involving the model having toilet paper stuck to his shoe into their advert, which the executives felt had misfired. Platinum's campaign was deemed to be clearly the better one, with Odyssey's campaign suffering a confused concept and poor overall execution.
• Winner: Platinum.
• Reward: A trip to a recording studio, and recording their own song with Lord Sugar's pet Labrinth.
• Brought into the boardroom: Andrew, Navdeep and Steven
• Who gets fired: Navdeep, because Lord Sugar did not see her as cut out for business, and felt she had more potential in other fields such as law.

Notes:

• This was Navdeep and Steven's second appearances in the final boardroom. Lord Sugar strongly implied that he was about to fire Andrew after Navdeep's departure but he was given his last chance to remain in the process, however Lord Sugar indicated he would definitely be fired if on the losing team again.
• Lucy once again escaped being brought back into the boardroom, setting a new record for the longest a Young Apprentice candidate had gone without once appearing in the final boardroom.

Week Seven [3.7]

• Project Managers: Patrick (Platinum) and Lucy (Odyssey)
• Task: To pick two items and sell them at a music festival.
• Result: Platinum ended up with an umbrella that doubled up as a seat, and a cardboard toilet. Odyssey also wanted the toilet, but lost out due to Steven and Lucy spending their entire pitch haggling on the price and showing no real enthusiasm for the product. They therefore ended up with novelty onesies and a pedal-powered washing machine. The teams found all their products hard to sell, in particular Odyssey, who ended up failing to sell a single washing machine. Platinum ultimately edged Odyssey in the final figures, winning by around just £30.
• Winner: Platinum
• Who gets fired:
  • Steven; no specific reason was given for his firing, though he had been deemed to be the most at fault for the bad sales pitch given to the toilet inventor as well as his experience of attending festivals being of no help on the task. His inability to provide a convincing answer when asked why he felt he was a stronger candidate than Andrew and Lucy may also have contributed to his firing.
  • Andrew, for not selling any washing machines, and having the weaker overall track record of him and Lucy.
• Notes:
  • Lord Sugar announced at the start of the task that two members of the losing team would be fired this week. This was the first double firing in any series of Young Apprentice. In the semi-final of Series 2, there was a quadruple firing; in Series 1, only one person was fired each week, although Adam left in Week 3 in addition to the regular firing.
  • This was the only occasion, in any series of the UK Apprentice, on which the losing PM survived a double firing.
  • Despite Ashleigh and Maria's disdainful attitude toward Patrick's leadership and overall skills, he was praised by Nick Hewer for selling many umbrellas despite the good weather on the day of the festival.
  • As with the previous season's semi-final, there was no reward for the winning team (as Lord Sugar felt that being in the final was enough of a reward) and no final boardroom as such.

Week Eight [3.8]

• Project Managers: Maria and Patrick (Platinum), and Ashleigh and Lucy (Odyssey)
• Teams: David, Steven, Navdeep and Amy (Platinum), and Max, Andrew, Alice and Sean (Odyssey)
• Task: To create a new sports brand and advertising campaign in Manchester.
• Result: Platinum created a cycling-based brand called Cyc, while Odyssey had a dance themed brand called Release. There was much tension from early in the task, as Maria and Ashleigh made it clear that they considered themselves the ones really in charge of their respective teams, leading to Patrick and Lucy taking lesser roles. Lucy responded by focusing on the parts of the task which Ashleigh was uninterested in, but Patrick effectively fought back against Maria by making unilateral decisions without consulting her. In particular he had a choir perform a rendition of "Poker Face" at the Trafford Centre for their viral video, which did prove somewhat attention grabbing, but was criticised for having no relevance to the campaign. Their overall campaign did get praise for tapping into what was considered the fastest-growing sport in the UK. Odyssey's video was considered much better, and their campaign was praised for having a long-term plan involving using the brand to fund youth projects, though the plan itself was considered unrealistically expensive, and there were questions about whether the market would be too crowded. Ultimately though, Odyssey's campaign was deemed to be better than Platinum's in almost every major aspect, resulting in them winning the task.
• Winner: Odyssey
• Who gets fired: Patrick and Maria, for having a lesser overall campaign and losing the task, plus the following additional reasons:
  • Patrick, for being behind the irrelevant "Poker Face" performance which was highlighted as the campaign's biggest flaw, and because it was generally agreed that he had made it to the final mostly through luck.
  • Maria, for shutting Patrick and their team members out of the creative process early on, which led to the team's fragmented campaign. It was also noted this was not the first time she had shown an unwillingness to work with others.
• Runner-up: Lucy; while Lord Sugar considered her to be very academically gifted and a very consistent overall performer, she was deemed to be a little too quiet and simply not as strong as Ashleigh overall.
• Winner: Ashleigh, for having been the strongest and most consistent performer across the entire series, and for being behind most of the key decisions which resulted in Odyssey winning the final task.
• Notes:
  • Rio Ferdinand was a guest judge at the marketing presentations.
  • Ashleigh nearly talked herself out of being named the winner when she gave an unfocused answer as to what she intended to do with the prize fund. By contrast, Lucy told Lord Sugar that she wanted to develop her existing part-time catering business. Ultimately though, this was not enough to prevent Ashleigh's victory.
  • Ashleigh is the first winner to have been a Project Manager in Week 1 since Tim Campbell in Series 1.
  • In all series of Young Apprentice, the eventual winner was a Project Manager in Week 5.

Results table

     The candidate received the £25,000 investment and won Young Apprentice.

     The candidate was the runner-up.

     The candidate won as project manager on his/her team.

     The candidate lost as project manager on his/her team.

     The candidate was on the winning team.

     The candidate was on the losing team.

     The candidate was brought to the final boardroom.

     The candidate was fired.

     The candidate lost as project manager and was fired.

Teams

Reception

Critical response

Young Apprentice received a generally positive response from critics. Writing for The Guardian, Tim Lusher was complimentary of the programme's tone by claiming that "for once, even the losers look as if they could be winners one day" and Alex Fletcher of Digital Spy said that from the opening minutes of the first episode it was clear that "this spinoff series isn't going to be any softer or less entertaining than the original".^[15][16] The Daily Telegraph's Benji Wilson also praised the series and argued that it "had all of the staggering self-regard and dim-witted hilarity we have come to expect from the contestants on the grown-up Apprentice".^[36] The online version of Heat magazine, heatworld.com, praised the series and said that it was "amazing...might just be the best show we’ve seen all year", while The Guardian's Johnny Dee claimed that the programme was of better quality than its adult counterpart and proved that reality television "doesn't have to be nasty to be entertaining".^[37][38]

Despite branding it as "compelling", John Crace of The Guardian claimed that the programme "gave us a first glimpse of the nightmare possibilities of Cameron Youth" and claimed that Sugar's softer approach to the young candidates came across as "unnatural". As well as the character of Zoe Plummer, also seen to be unnatural.^[39] In The Independent, Tom Sutcliffe suggested that the sight of crying teenagers would leave the audience feeling uncomfortable.^[40] Shortly before the programme started, both the National Federation of Enterprise Agencies and the Institute of Directors criticised the programme's lack of relevancy to business; the former argued that the BBC should instead be focusing on some of Britain's four million small businesses and the latter claimed that the programme should be more informative instead of "entertainment masquerading as business".^[41]

In September 2012, it was announced that Young Apprentice was nominated for the 18th National Television Awards in the category Factual Entertainment.^[42]

Transmissions

Ratings

Episode viewing figures from BARB.^[43]

Series 1

Series 2

Series 3

References

External links

• BBC Programmes