Young Apprentice

Young Apprentice is a British reality television programme and a spin off of The Apprentice, in which a group of young people compete against each other in a series of business related challenges to win a £25,000 investment from British business magnate Lord Sugar. In addition to Sugar, he was also joined by his adviser Nick Hewer, and new adviser Karren Brady, prior to her debut on the main show, upon Margaret Mountford's departure from the role in 2009. Premiering on 12 May 2010, the show ran for three series on both BBC One and BBC HD, before it was cancelled by the BBC, after they decided not to renew it after its third series. The programme was met with mostly positive reviews from critics during its broadcast. History In March 2008, Alan Sugar made an announcement that he intended to propose to the BBC of creating a junior version of The Apprentice owing to its success, with the intention that it would feature children aged between 12-15 and be aired during an early evening timeslot. He later claimed that "nobody took any notice" of his suggestions. A year later, Sugar announced that he had begun negotiations with the BBC in regards to the concept he proposed - this included a focus on the winning team in episodes; a gentler handling of young candidates; the inclusion of his advisers in the spin-off; and airing on BBC One with a similar format structure to that of the main show, though with no use of the Interviews stage of the contest. Official confirmation that the idea had been green-lighted and production was underway on the spin-off, came in the form of announcement made during an episode of The Apprentice: You're Fired! covering the fifth series of the main show, on 20 May 2009, for applicants for the new show. Part of the announcement revealed that the initial concept for the age group of applicants had changed during negotiation, with it now being focused on those between 16–17 years old, from a variety of social and educational backgrounds, with the announcement inviting potential applicants to visit the official The Apprentice website to apply for the spin-off. Sugar remarked that the series, originally announced to be a five-part series, aimed to "promote enterprise amongst young people, as the future of our economy relies on them". In response to this announcement, 28,000 teenagers applied for the show, with ten selected to take part in the competition.