Apprentice results

As the Venerable Apprentice, as fl:ux likes to refer to me ;), I thought I should say something about this year's series.

Well for starters I'm very happy that Katie is out. I thought Sir Alan played her very well, telling her she was through to the final and then letting her stew for a bit before returning and allowing her to star in her own wee drama, which was what she was all about anyway. And those fluttering eyelashes, they made me want to barf!
(Although I agree with comments on Pat's blog that in a real life interview he'd be in breach of Equal Opps legislation in terms of indirect discrimination.)

I hope Kristina wins, although two wins in a row by women would be somewhat surprising.

I see she has a Hons degree in Maths and Simon has an MA in Economics from Cambridge - so perhaps the show is moving away from the image of working class barrow boy makes good, which is a shame as I'm sure there are still thousands of people out there who haven't managed to make it to university for a whole raft of reasons and this programme could be a great platform to show them that there are other routes to success.

I must say I found the business prowess of this particular set of wannabees fairly underwhelming. None, bar Simon, seem to have researched their quarry and in most tasks they just floundered around. I thought that was particularly evident on the tele sales episode. In past years the contestants had the sense to ask the people there what sold well and how best to pitch it - this lot never even bothered to ask.
They were also completely oblivious to the requirements of food labelling etc on the zoo/sweetie job. And I'd like to know if they are all the type of people who build flat pack things without reference to the instructions, as they never seemed to read the rules on tasks - particularly the penalty clauses if the task wasn't wholly completed.


As someone who has had to set young people tasks I find that their biggest flaw is that they don't stop to scope a job first. A few quick notes on a job can save you hours later on - especially a little thinking on contingencies just in case your first ideas doesn't pan out.

Regrettably this show just seems to be becoming another vehicle towards celebrity and a slot as a cable TV presenter. The real show would be a fly on the wall documentary of the making of the series - and like Big Brother the really interesting part would be the initial editorial discussion on who is selected and why.