A review of the first two weeks of The Junior Apprentice - a six-part series from the BBC featuring ten young people, aged 16 and 17, competing to win a £25,000 prize by impressing Lord Sugar.Week 1
The Junior Apprentice has kicked off with Lord Alan Sugar back in the board room but this time with young people competing for the title of the first ever Junior Apprentice. The six-week Junior Apprentice competition has the candidates, all aged between 16 and 17 fighting it out through a series of tasks all in the hope of being awarded access to a fund worth £25,000 to kick-start their career and development in the business world.
Each week the candidates are split into two teams and faced with the weekly task briefed to them by Lord Sugar. The tasks are set to stretch the candidates creative and business skills and see if they are able to create a profit under the pressure.
This week's task saw the teams selling 23 different varieties of cheese worth £500 at busy London market stalls. As a team they had to decide on the market they were going to trade from, set the cheese prices and then start selling process, aiming to bring in a sizable profit for Lord Sugar. 16 year old Jordan De Courcy became the first victim of the board room after nominating himself as project manager but failing to keep his team organised. Even after sending team members out onto the streets trying to sell the cheese they still failed to make a profit. Jordan has been quoted saying 'I think give it five years and I can be just as successful if not more successful than Lord Sugar.' An estimated fortune of £830million and ranked 59th in The Times Rich List in 5 years time I think we will just have to wait and see!
The pressure continues to mount for the young apprentices as they face the second task; to design a camping accessory and pitch it to three leading retailers. This episode is bound to be faced with conflicts from the start so be sure to tune in on Wednesday at 9 o'clock.
Here at Not Going To Uni we are backing Adam to win the title of the first Junior Apprentice. During the first episode he showed a willingness to get stuck in and share his knowledge with the team; vital skills needed to succeed in the business world. Let's hope that he continues to shine and pull through all the tasks he is faced with. If you want more information on real apprenticeships or are interested in becoming an apprentice in a sector that you have a passion for then why not visit www.notgoingtouni.co.uk to find out information on available apprenticeships.
Week 2
The search for the first junior apprentice continued this week with the second of the six tasks given to the candidates by Lord Sugar.
After Jordan's exist last week the pressure really mounted for the remaining nine. This week's task saw the candidates having to design a camping accessory and then pitch the prototype to three leading camping retailers.
The teams were mixed up a little with Hannah taking the role of project manager and working alongside the boys whilst Adam was the project manager and had to work with the rest of the girls. Hannah, supported by the boys, came up with the concept of a sledge on wheels for people to use at festivals to transport their belongings to and from the tents. The original concept seemed impressive but when the prototype arrived and we saw how shallow the sledge was you soon wondered whether this was actually a practical idea.
Adam and the girls could not agree as a team on a single product and therefore Adam, as project manager, decided to incorporate everyone's suggestions and come up with a storage type box with board games on top, made out of cardboard. Somehow camping and a cardboard storage container just do not go together and this was shown when the teams were back in the board room for the results. There was a clear victory for Hannah's team as none of the three retailers put in a single order for the cardboard storage container!
Adam then went back in to the board room with Zoe and Hibah and each of them fought for their place in the competition. Lord Sugar decided that Hibah was not right for the competition and she became the second victim of the board room.
The competition reaches the half way point next week and the pressure is really on for the candidates to perform if they want to be titled the first Junior Apprentice. The next challenge sees the candidates icing and decorating their own themed brand of cupcakes and selling them to the public in one of the country's leading department stores. This is a tasty task for the candidates but we will have to tune in next Wednesday to see which team can generate the most sales to put the icing on Lord Sugar's cake!
