'I'm not a one-trick pony," said Stuart Baggs during the 2010 Apprentice series. "I'm not a 10-trick pony. I'm a whole field of ponies – and they're literally all running towards this job." In the end, the ponies never got there, but perhaps it was a blessing in disguise. There was no real job to run for, claims Stella English, the businesswoman who beat Baggs to win the series.
"It's just been an appalling experience," she told an interviewer at the weekend. "I've wasted two years of my life when I could have been doing something better." English alleges that she did not get to work directly with Lord Sugar, who uses the BBC reality series to find new employees. She says Sugar paid her scant attention, gave her little responsibility, and that her immediate bosses resented her £100k salary. Have other Apprentice winners fared better?
Tim Campbell, nicknamed "Mr Nice Guy" for being boring – sorry, for refusing to bash other contestants – won the first series in 2005. For two years, he was project director of Sugar's health and beauty division, and was involved in marketing an anti-wrinkle product. Sugar called him a "great asset", but Campbell left in 2007 to set up a social enterprise, the Bright Ideas Trust, which mentors business-minded youngsters.
The 2006 winner, Michelle Dewberry, left Lord Sugar's employment after only 11 months. Shortly after, she released her autobiography Anything is Possible and now runs shopping websites.
Simon Ambrose was Sugar's longest-serving apprentice, lasting three years at Amprop helping develop properties including a golf course, a hotel and London offices. He left in 2010 to start his own property business. Meanwhile, Yasmina Siadatan, the winner of the fifth series, still works at Amscreen, the digital signage division. In 2010, it was reported she was expecting a baby with a colleague at the firm.
After a change in the show's format, this year's winner, Tom Pellereau, won a £250,000 investment from Sugar. Pellereau's winning pitch centred on a new chair, but he has since been linked to development of a water sanitation product that combats the bacteria responsible for legionnaires' disease.
