Michelle Dewberry beat Ruth Badger in the final of The Apprentice to land a £100,000-a-year job with the Amstrad tycoon. The 26-year-old’s victory on the BBC Two show was watched by millions who have followed her progress over the past 12 weeks.

After Sir Alan uttered the magic words “Michelle — you’re hired”, he told the winner: “All you have ever done in your life is work hard and you have become a great achiever.”

Before winning, Ms Dewberry, a telecoms consultant from Hull, admitted that she once spent a year playing truant from school. She has also described how coping with the death of her older sister, who fell from an eighth-floor window in Hull nine years ago, was a turning point.

“For someone like Sir Alan to recognise my ability is unbelievable,” she said. “It wasn’t until right at the very end when he said I’d won that I believed it. It shows you don’t need to be loud and cocky and bolshie — just work as hard as you can and, hopefully, you will get on in life.”

The other finalist, Ms Badger, 28, a sales manager from Wolverhampton, found it difficult to conceal her disappointment. She said: “I’m genuinely, genuinely happy for Michelle but I’m absolutely gutted that I’m not working for Sir Alan. I’ve never in my career or my life fought for something so much. There’s nobody in this country that inspires me more than Sir Alan. Even though I’ve come second I absolutely worship the man.”

Viewers watched Sir Alan agonise over the victor, telling the two women that they had “very, very different characteristics”. He said: “I was in a terrible dilemma this year. It was very, very tough. Last year was much easier, there was no contest. They are both very employable people, both have tremendous skills. And I think it’s down to the job that I have in mind that pipped it for Michelle.”

He told Ms Badger: “I’m not worried about you, I know you’re going to go on and be a success.”

In the final episode the two women each chose three of their former competitors to help them stage an event at Tower Bridge in London. Although Ms Badger’s murder mystery evening made more money, Ms Dewberry won with a James Bond-themed party.

Ms Dewberry’s party may have had the required glam element, but her new job will be more mundane. She will be launching a business called Xenon Green, disposing of unwanted computer equipment.

• Apply for the third series of The Apprentice at bbc.co.uk/apprentice

  Hired? You should be fired for selling drivel

  AS MUD-WRESTLING contests go, The Apprentice is right up there with the best. As a serious attempt to put business on the telly, it is tripe.

  True to form, last night’s final episode reflected corporate realities in the same way that I’m a Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here! accurately depicted life in the jungle for a desperately lost explorer. It provided lessons in enterprise in the same way that David Blaine’s recent antics taught us about scuba diving.

  If demonstrating the ability to throw a good party represents the epitome of skilled business practice, Sir Alan Sugar is a turquoise kangaroo. And if Michelle Dewberry deserved to win, even accepting the hopelessly flawed logic behind this drivel, the moon is made of fluorescent-orange cheese. Gentlemen — to borrow a phrase from the oeuvre employed by Ms Dewberry when selecting a theme for her night out — prefer blondes. So, it seems, does Sir Alan.

  If The Apprentice has value, and the viewing figures and plaudits from TV-land suggest that it does, it is mostly because it shines a light on the psychological and sociological behaviour of a random collection of people. The circumstances make little difference.

  If you take your lead from The Apprentice you will assume that commerce is gruff, unpleasant, inhumane, penny-pinching and bad. Maybe the programme is just harmless fun. But maybe it also reinforces ill-informed prejudices against business.

• Robert Cole is acting business editor of The Times

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