Week 3 of The Apprentice, and the candidates were told to meet at the Tate Modern in London. Here, Sir Alan named Ian and Sara as the team leaders for this week’s task which required them to turn an average pub into a successful themed restaurant, well at least for a day.

The boys decided on Italian, with the girls routing for a Bollywood theme. Kevin stepped up to the plate and decided to be the head chef for the boys, with team leader Sara for the girls. Having established their theme, both teams set about sourcing ingredients for their dishes. The girls purchased their ingredients from local suppliers and bargained prices down to maximise profits. Instead, the boys had to fork out for supermarket prices, having left it late in the day. Concerned with overspending and running low on ingredients, the boys also resorted to serving half pizzas to customers!

Back at the boardroom, it was revealed the girls managed to generate double the profit of the boys, winning the task for this week. Ian decided to bring head chef Kevin and Simon back into the boardroom. Concerned at the lack of leadership coming from Ian, Kevin decided to call a meeting before dinner service the night before. However Ian, desperately trying to shift the blame, conveniently couldn’t remember Kevin ever calling the meeting. However, Sir Alan could see through the cover up and as team leader decided Ian was the next apprentice to be fired!

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Week 2 of The Apprentice, and after last week’s poor performance by both teams it was time to show they had lifted their game. After Reaf Bjayou escaped being fired by Sir Alan last week and looking to disprove any question marks over his performance, he put himself forward for the role of team leader for the boys this week. For the girls, Jenny Celerier also put her hand up for the role of team leader.

This week, Sir Alan set the teams the task of operating a laundry business. Allowed to use industrial laundry services for one day only, the winning team will be the one who made the most money at the end of the task. Additionally Sir Alan lined up a big hotel offer for the team with the most suitable pitch.

Both teams developed a pricing structure, for the boys £1 - £2 for most items depending on size, for the girls a fixed £4.99 for every item. With the prices agreed, the girls were first to make their pitch to the hotel manager. With 1000 items to be laundered the girls priced the job at £5000! As the girls did not move on the offer, it was time for the boys to pitch. With their flexible pricing structure, the boys were closer to usual price to launder that quantity. Eventually the boys closed the deal, agreeing at £200 for the lot.

Having lost the hotel deal, the girls went door-to-door in the hope of getting business. Jennifer Maguire and Lindi Mngaza approached a fish monger needing a pile of dirty clothes to be cleaned. Normally costing £60, the owner was amazed to find the girls would launder the entire pile for only £15 all in!

Reaf Bjayou, Kevin Shaw and Michael Sophocles continued looking for business, whilst with a van load of laundry from the hotel, Lee McQueen, Simon Smith, Ian Stringer and Alex Wotherspoon started on the mammoth task of washing and pressing every item. With Simon having worked in laundry service before, the task seemed to running like a military operation.

By 2:00am, the end of the allocated time to use the industrial laundry services, the boys had finished every item, whilst the girls had to rely on the morning to continue ironing some of their items back at the house.

The next day, upon handing back the washed items the girls discover that some of the items are missing. Not only this, but realising they are low on cash for the task; they ask customers if they would like to include a tip for their good service!

When it came to the boardroom, the girls lost the task with Jenny, Lucinda and Shazia in the final three. It was a close call between team leader Jenny and Shazia who was in charge of recording every item of clothing when returning them to the customer. Having stated at the beginning of the task not to lose a single sock, let alone two shirts, Sir Alan named Shazia as the second apprentice to be fired.

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“It’s the job interview from hell”. The first words used to kick-start the latest series of The Apprentice. Series 4 started last night on BBC1 at 9:00pm and looks set to be as thrilling as the last. Once again, 16 plucky contestants go before Sir Alan Sugar to become The Apprentice.

Even before the contestants had the chance to settle in to their luxury accommodation for the duration, they were set on their first task. Split into two teams, girls vs. boys, they were instructed by Sir Alan to sell fish to the markets of London. True to form in The Apprentice, errors where made by both teams. The girls were selling fish below cost price, whilst the boys where confusing the weight of fish between kg and lb.

After the task and back in the boardroom, it was revealed the girls won the first task. Whilst the girls were back at the house enjoying dinner cooked by Jean Christophe Novelli, the boys deliberated where they went wrong at the local café. When back in the boardroom, team leader Alex Wotherspoon was asked to name two other candidates to join him in being up for the chop. Alex chose Raef Bjoyau and Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and after much arguing between the three and intense scrutiny by Sir Alan, Nicholas was treated to the now legendary phrase “You’re Fired”.

1 job, now 15 candidates remain, Sir Alan’s search for The Apprentice continues…

Series Four of The Apprentice is due to return to our screens this week. Again the contestants will go head-to-head to become The Apprentice and work for Sir Alan Sugar on a six figure salary.

Here at theapprenticeforum.co.uk we will be covering the series week by week to discover who gets fired, along with all of the latest developments. Not only will you will be able to comment on any of our articles, why not join our Apprentice Forum to chat with others about the latest stories and make your voice heard.

Remember, stay tuned to theapprenticeforum.co.uk for all the latest news…

Who would have believed it….? Simon takes the apprentice position working under Sir Alan. The race for the finish line was always going to be tight but many expected Kristina to clinch it.

Kristina AKA “the finely tuned rifle” was unfortunate not to walk away the winner of The Apprentice. The candidates both did an equally good job on their final task in my opinion and Sir Alan’s decision then boiled down to the candidate’s personality, knowledge and performances in previous tasks. They were both outstanding candidates and clearly have the ability and capability to go very far in whichever walk of life they choose, which is more than I can say for Katie.

In the end Sir Alan had the choice between Kristina, a highly driven, experienced businesswoman, or Simon, an intelligent, excitable young professional with heaps of potential. In my opinion Sir Alan wanted a challenge and Simon provided that challenge, now Sir Alan can “mould” Simon into his own shrewd entrepreneur.

Did Simon deserve to win based on his performances during the previous tasks, I say…. No, Kristina was definitely the winner there, but we have to remember that the position was for an “apprentice” and not an experienced businessperson. As far as I am concerned an apprenticeship position is for someone to learn the trade and Kristina didn’t really need to learn much as she was already performing close to her full potential. However Simon still had much more to give and once he has had his tutoring he has the potential to revolutionise Sir Alan’s future plans.

Remember to leave your comments, as we would love to know your thoughts.

12.25 pm 12 June 2007 LONDON (Reuters) - The self-proclaimed alpha-female of “The Apprentice,” who turned down the chance of a 100,000-pound job working for Sir Alan Sugar, has been fired from her real-life job.

Katie Hopkins, 32, who was last week seen sensationally quitting the BBC show despite being offered a place in Wednesday’s final, has been told she no longer has a job with the Meteorological Office.

The outspoken contestant, as much a feature in the media for her bedroom exploits as her boardroom coups, was told on Monday that her brand consultant’s role had come to an end.

A spokesman for the Met Office said: “Her employment has been terminated.”

“Like all new civil service employees, she had a period of probation. She has failed to reach the required standard.

“New entrants are expected to keep a standard on attendance, performance, time-keeping and conduct.”

Media reports said Hopkins is considering taking the Met Office to an industrial tribunal.

The full report can be found here http://uk.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUKL1258044120070612

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Well I thought that might happen… her best bet now really is to team up with Tre and approach the BBC for a series of their own… although to be honest Tre would not need her, he could do it all on his own!

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Well at last we really saw Katie as she really is – incredible, absolutely incredible!

She’s been looking like a spoilt little girl actress for some time now and last night she excelled herself.

She’s just a game player who wants to win at any cost, as far as I’m concerned.

Almost too late, Sir Alan realised, either fortunately or cleverly(?), and gave her the opportunity to think about what it would mean to be potentially selected as “The Apprentice”. He could see something was wrong and went on to state “There are three other people in this room and it would really, really annoy me if you took this opportunity away from them”.

At that point I’m pretty sure she thought - hmmm … I can get a bigger win situation out of this by saying I want to quit now. That was her only reason for quitting in my opinion; or she was worried she would eventually loose to one of the other finalists, and could not bear that thought.

She’s a quick thinker though, when she made the decision to quit she backed it up quickly by saying: “I don’t want to make a fool of you or me. I think it’s more important to get the courtesy to have my plans in place, so I’ll have to stand down.”

Well that was b*?!ocks if ever I heard anything!

Anyone who can put on their CV - as a positive point - that they are proud of stealing someone else’s partner has got to be a little strange in the head and at best not the nicest person around.

For those of you who did not see the BBC2 “Your Fired” bit after the main show, it was a joy to see all three of the panelists as well as the audience show her exactly what we all, the majority of people anyway, think of her.

I really wonder if she has a future working anywhere for anyone now? Oh dear what a shame!

One thing though, it has mainly been Tre and Katie who made the show a really great piece of entertainment. Hey maybe they will become the next Richard and Judy …. now there’s a thought!!!

After weeks and weeks without hearing much from her, single mum Jadine Johnson finally got the chance to prove yet again she is one of the contenders to take the prize and work for Sir Alan. Jadine was once again in the spotlight after being given the chance to lead team Eclipse into a comprehensive victory against the poor showing of team Stealth. Jadine was quite a powerful and forth coming figure at the beginning of the show, but some what faded into the background over the past several weeks. Many in her home town of Harrow are firmly behind the 27 year old financial advisor and believe she has what it takes to become the next winner of the apprentice. What are your thoughts on Jadine’s chances of winning the apprentice?

In the eighth episode of series 3, this week is all about branding as our contestants have to design a logo and produce a advert for a pair of trainers. The main objective is to create an advert that in Sir Alans words will ’sell kit’ and not win ‘The Montrose award for advertising tossers!’. The brave Ghazal, who after escaping the bullet last week asked to be put forward for team leader, which Sir Alan kindly agreed and let Ghazal take charge of team Stealth. Jadine also stepped up to the plate and took charge of team Eclipse.
Ghazal had the advantage as far as team selection went and had Katie who is a Global Brand Consultant and Naomi who is an Advertising Sales Manager on her side. On paper Ghazal’s team looked like it would be a breeze, but far from it. Team Stealth struggled for any ideas and failed to come up with any real concept early on. Ghazal also had the task of having Katie and Kristina on the same team, whose recent friendship has been shattered by constant bickering and differences of opinion. To stop them to going at it again was a task in itself.
On the other side Jadine and her team had made some good progress towards the task with Tre boasting ‘Branding is my forte’, with that type of confidence behind them team Eclipse seemed a lot more relaxed and even had a concept sorted early on. They decide on the name ’street’ and apparently according to branding ‘bad boy’ Tre it represents an ‘underground alternative to the mass-produced representation of their culture’ (yeah that’s what it means?).
The girls still struggling for ideas and falling short with any concept finally to Katie’s horror go for ‘Jam’ which was one of Kristina’s ideas. Ghazal decides to run with ‘jam’ and aims the trainer at the youth market, but Naomi disagrees after seeing the logo on the trainer ‘I can see a grandmother on a cruise wearing these’.
Things may not be going so smoothly on team Stealth, but on team Eclipse things couldn’t be cooler, as Simon writes and performs a rap for the advert and even busting a few breaking dancing moves. Simon seems to be growing more and stronger as a potential winner as the programme draws to the final stages.
After some chopping and changing Ghazal finally decides to go with ‘Music is everything’ rather than ‘image is everything’. Again no love was lost between Katie and Kristina over the change of name as Katie blurts ‘Kristina is a total arse coverer… It’s a shame she doesn’t do it a little better with the skirt she wears’.
Once both teams had done there pitch, Jadines team came through as winners and escaped the boardroom. But unfortunately with every winner there has to be a loser and this week yet again Ghazal and Katie found themselves up for a potential firing, as there pitch fell flat.
Ghazal called Naomi and Katie in to the boardroom with her to face the ‘music’ and it take long for the bitching to start. Ghazal was accused of being a bad leader, while Katie stupidly started to disagree with Sir Alan’s views of there advert. Sir Alan told Katie ”There was no big idea there’ which she disagreed with. Katie who has been on the losing team six times now was starting to drive Sir Alans patience, which we have found out in the past before isn’t a good idea. He labeled Katie a ‘loser’ as she had been on the losing side six times and still didn’t realize her pitch and advert was rubbish .After much debating Ghazal was finally dismissed with Sir Alan stating ‘I think you’re all talk and no do’.
Was ghazal dismissed fairly? How does Katie Keep Avoiding Dismissal?

Watch Highlights of Episode Eight

Sir Alan Sugar has revealed he likes this year’s Apprentice line-up better than the last. The businessman-turned-reality TV star said he was unhappy with the series which saw winner Michelle Dewberry leave her prize job at Amstrad just weeks after starting.

“I wasn’t very happy with the calibre of contestants last year, to be frank with you,”

“There’s a lot of regrets from last year — maybe turning up would be the biggest.”

He said it took some convincing to get him to return: “I agreed to do it after a long period of debate. I’ve had more input into how the candidates are chosen, and there’s a core of very strong people this time.”

There are suggestions Sir Alan is picking four finalists to get temporary jobs to ensure he gets the right winner next month.

“We’ve not really decided how the final will work yet,” he explained. “But there are four in the frame at the moment. I was very happy with Tim and he’s doing absolutely the right thing branching off on his own.”