Tim Campbell, a transport manager for the London Underground and who holds a diploma from the CIPD, has won BBC2’s the Apprentice, but the programme could now face a backlash from business.
Campbell won after Sir Alan Sugar picked him from 14 hopefuls to take a £100,000 job in his company.
However, Sugar’s hard-nosed approach to the prospective candidates has angered the CBI.
Sir Digby Jones, director general of the CBI, said that most members of the employers’ body did not want to be associated with it.
“[The Apprentice] has nothing to do with modern business and it puts 99% of good businessmen and women in this country in a very unfair light,” he said.
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However, Sugar told BBC Radio that it was a business programme from which “a lot of people are going to learn some great business tips”.
He also pushed the diversity agenda, saying “anyone who says women are not good in business are talking rubbish because some of them are brilliant”.