To many The Apprentice is looked upon purely as a form of entertainment for all us unwashed masses.

In fact on the BBC Apprentice forums someone has (with a little tongue in cheek) suggested that The Apprentice is unfair and good bosses would train their apprentices before testing them in the way Sir Alan does.

In fact they make the point that this whole show is really a form of abuse as any “good boss” wouldn’t go to the lengths shown in the show.

It’s a good point.

However, as Sir Alan notes in his introduction this whole series is a job interview.  That means he’s not training the candidates for the job of Apprentice. He’s seeing whether they have what it takes to be The Apprentice.

The Apprentice Testing Times

If you want to find out whether your new recruit can undertake a range of business tasks and still come up smiling any business would be pleased to have seen whether their candidate could.

If you look at the first few of last year’s tasks they are pretty representative of the type of tasks the Apprentices are set.

As you can see most of the tasks are testing how the teams are managed, how they go about getting customers, how they make a profit and the ability to sell themselves.

As the tasks continue each week it starts to become pretty clear as to who can cope under pressure. Which ones are able to manage their team effectively and bring in the profits. And also who is a team player and doesn’t always try and wriggle out of blame and/or out of work.

So in reality the Apprentice is a very entertaining and pretty effective method for sorting through your application pile!

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