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Will James be hired?

Friday, 9 December 2011

Loreto College student James McCullagh will compete against Zara Brownless for the title of Young Apprentice on Monday night.

COLERAINE student James McCullagh is one more task away from becoming Lord Alan Sugar's next Young Apprentice.
James, who is from Portstewart, but attends Loreto College Coleraine will go up against Zara Brownless in next Monday night's final on BBC One for the title of Young Apprentice and a fund worth £25,000 which will go towards kick-starting either James or Zara's business career.
James, who is the eldest of the six boys, is the only candidate out of the 12 from Northern Ireland. He is studying for A Levels in English, Economics, Spanish and Biology and got the joint highest score in GSCE Economics in Northern Ireland and feels he is a natural businessman.
A massive football fan, James lists his passion as economics. He describes himself as a risk-taker and always follows his gut instinct.
He says: "I have integrity, but when winning gets in the way of integrity, integrity goes out the window."
On the penultimate episode on Monday night, James was Project Manager of team Kinetic, made up of Zara and Haya, tasked with making two new flavours of popcorn to sell on to three different companies. The team that made the least amount of orders, Atomic, saw all three contestants fired. Lord Sugar also said goodbye to Haya despite her being on the winning team leaving James and Zara to go head to head next week to create a new downloadable online game with the help of their former rivals as the axed candidates return.
Seventeen-year-old James didn't make the best of starts to the series. He was not only on the losing team in week one but he was also brought back into the boardroom as one of three that could have been fired. However, Lord Sugar spared him, but warned James about his "brash and cocky behaviour".
He was part of the winning team in the next three weeks and indeed was Project Manager in that winning week four. However, he was on the losing team in week five and was brought back into the boardroom but was saved from eviction because of his performance as project manager the week before. James was back on the winning team in week six and stood out for his negotiating skills as he and his team-mates were tasked with finding 10 items for Madame Tussaud's waxworks spending as little money as possible.
And on Monday's week seven, James assumed the role of Project Manager for a second time in the series, overseeing team Kinetic create a type of Mediterranean popcorn called 'La Popcorn'. Despite their popcorn flopping with Jet2.com, who didn't order any bags at all, Kinetic managed a huge order from Morrisons, which single-handedly won them the task.
However, he wasn't safe just yet with one of the three of the winning team still to be fired. Lord Sugar asked each team member who they thought should not go through to the final, James and Haya said each other while Zara said Haya. This, along with Zara's generally very strong record throughout the competition, ensured that Lord Sugar made her the first finalist. Sugar had numerous concerns with James, specifically his overly dictatorial leadership style and his poor choice of brand name. However, his 2-0 record as project manager and numerous good performances in the past helped ensure him through to the final at the expense of Haya.
After eight weeks of searching will James hear those two important words ... 'You're Hired!' from Lord Sugar. Tune into BBC One 9pm on Monday night.

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