Former Young Enterprise entrepreneur impresses on the Apprentice

Sabrina Stocker, the 22-year-old business owner from Middlesex, has impressed the nation by getting to the interview stage (week 11) of the BBC reality-competition series, The Apprentice.

Sabrina has publicly acknowledged the entrepreneurial education charity, Young Enterprise, as one of the reasons for her success after setting up a business selling retro sweets when she was just 14, as part of one of their schemes.

This is not the first time an Apprentice contestant has spoken out about the importance of Young Enterprise in helping to develop entrepreneurial skills – 2017 candidate Sajan Shah also cited the business charity as essential to his success.

In this year’s instalment of the reality competition, Sabrina was made project manager on three occasions, leading her team to victory and impressing Lord Alan Sugar two times.

Sabrina was hoping to invest the £500,000 prize money into developing her Tennis events management company, MyTennisEvents, into a globally recognised brand – and there’s little to suggest she will not still strive to achieve this goal, even without the aid of Lord Sugar as a business partner.

Sabrina also works as an event coordinator for David Lloyd Leisure, and has described herself as: “a mix of Willy Wonka drinking an espresso martini… classy and sophisticated on the outside; inside, a little bit crazy and wacky but full of brilliant ideas.”

Michael Mercieca, CEO of Young Enterprise, comments:

“It is becoming ever more apparent that developing entrepreneurial skills and a business mindset from a young age can prove essential to a successful career – both for young people who anticipate setting up their own business as well as for those who need to succeed in the workplace. Young Enterprise was established not just to build successful future entrepreneurs like Sabrina and Sajan, but to upskill young people in work skills beyond the academic curriculum.

“It’s great to see such evidence of our schemes’ success, and the acknowledgement that Young Enterprise entrepreneurs express for the programmes that we run for them in schools. I would like to wish Sabrina the very best of success as she embarks on her new adventure. I look forward to seeing more Young Enterprise alumni take on Lord Sugar’s challenge.”

About Young Enterprise: The UK’s leading enterprise and financial education charity that empowers young people to harness their personal and business skills. Every year we work directly with over 320,000 young people, and train 3,200 teachers in both enterprise and financial education, with the help of more than 6,000 volunteers and 3,500 businesses. We believe that the potential of the UK’s young people is unlimited, and an academic education on its own is not enough. Our mission is to empower young people to discover, develop and celebrate their skills and potential

Through our hands-on employability and financial education programmes and resources and teacher training, we want to eradicate youth unemployment, help young people realise their potential beyond education and empower a generation to learn, to work and to live. Founded in 1962, we are part of global network JA-YE operating in 120 countries.