Last week I met the final 50 contenders for the Dragon’s Apprentice positions.
It was difficult to whittle them down from the thousands who entered and it’s fantastic to see there is so much potential and ambition in our young people.
I launched the initiative in response to government figures showing that youth unemployment hit a million last year. I wanted to create opportunity for the additional 300,000 graduates and 400,000 school-leavers struggling for work.
But the main element will be to shape and mould young entrepreneurs who could go away and develop world-class businesses that fuel job creation and boost the economy.
I had the candidates dress in casual clothes to meet me at my Edinburgh HQ for a day of team-building, psychometric tests and quick-fire interviews with my senior management team.
I was blown away by some of the dynamism and creativity on display. We had a diverse range of candidates from school and university-leavers to those looking for a career change.
The majority of the top 50 demonstrated the essential entrepreneurial flair, self-motivation and hard-work ethic needed to be a success within my organisation.
After significant consultation, we settled on a final ten which will be split into two teams for a commercial business challenge in Edinburgh tomorrow.
This test will assess the candidates fundamental business acumen and will allow us to decide who’ll be our next three apprentices.
Despite being impressed by the standard of the top 50, there were some recurring points that separated the cream from the crop.
All ten scored highly on logical reasoning, commercial aptitude and general leadership. They had an awareness of my business interests and support towards business mentoring – research and preparation is a fundamental basic of any interview.
Tomorrow’s final is going to be exciting and I’m looking forward to announcing the final three and monitoring their development throughout their 12-month programme.
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