Over the past five weeks, 10 young candidates from all over the UK have embarked on a series of tough tasks that have pushed their business skills to the limit.  The tasks were challenging, demanding and tough but there could only ever be one winner.

In the last issue of Asian Express, we pinpointed out the brilliance of one of the candidates, who has now gone the distance and come out on top. A-Level student Arjun Rajyagor, 17, beat off stiff competition from nine other talented teens to land the title of Junior Apprentice and access to a £25,000 fund. The fund will go towards starting his business career. 

In the final task, Arjun and fellow A-Level student Tim Ankers worked together on Team Instinct opposite the final two girls, Zoe Plummer and Kirsty Cleaver, who led Team Revolution.

The teams were asked to create their own brand of bottled water.  They had to come up with a name, develop the product identity and film a TV advert complete with jingle and then present their prototype to industry experts and Lord Sugar.Team Instinct won the task and Arjun was then chosen over Tim.

Arjun to become the first ever Junior Apprentice and is now keen to concentrate on his education before developing his future career.

"At the moment I am studying for my A-Level exams in Physics, Maths and Systems & Control, whilst also undertaking AS Further Maths in my own time. I am heading to university in September, hopefully to The University of Oxford to study Engineering Science" said Arjun

"From Junior Apprentice, I have learnt that business has a lot more elements to it than I initially believed, and that a business dynamic depends entirely on the team that is running it and their passion towards the service/object being sold. It is always important to work with people who share your vision and goal and that way, you can help each other to attain it.

"The feeling of being the first ever winner is beyond amazing, when I found out, I couldn't believe it, I was physically taken aback and had to double-check. Never in my wildest dreams did I believe that I would win when I first sent off that application form but now that I have, I couldn't be more elated, my family and friends have been the greatest support system that anyone could have asked for and I actually cannot believe that it is all over."

Lord Sugar was very impressed by the caliber of all the candidates on this years Junior Apprentice but their was just something special about young Arjun.

Lord Sugar said: "Arjun has that natural business flair combined with intelligence that some people are born with – you can't learn it. I know that Arjun is going to become the best at whatever he wants to do and I will be here for support all the way. I was so impressed with all of the candidates – they were outstanding for their age - but there had to be just one winner, and Arjun has done himself and his family proud."

Arjun now has the backing of Lord Sugar and his £25,000 fund but what does Arjun plan on spending it on?

"The fund would be fundamental to starting my own business after University, when I will also have the remaining qualifications that I require. The business will primarily focus on working at the forefront of new and upcoming technologies and eventually creating viable products which will harness the capability of said technologies. I aspire to, one day, trade with the likes of NASA and Apple."

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