Rebecca Slater became the sixth Apprentice candidate of the series to hear the dreaded words "You're fired" uttered by Lord Sugar in the boardroom on Wednesday evening. "I'm feeling a bit in shock really," said the 35-year-old medical sales rep. "I'm disappointed I've not been able to show Lord Sugar more of my abilities. I didn't think I'd be going today." Rebecca's team Evolve failed to impress in this week's task which involved planning and delivering a corporate away day. The client asked for a partial refund due to a lack of focus on business skills at the event, which combined cupcake making and wine tasting courses.
Their 'Back to School' themed day made a profit of £1,095 compared to rival team Endeavour's £1,579. In his scathing summary of the losing team members' performances he told Rebecca, "There's nothing wrong with being quiet, this is not about who can shout the loudest. "However, I have to say that I haven't seen much from you in the past six weeks"Woken by a 6am phone call, the 11 candidates were met at London's Guildhall by Lord Sugar where they received their instructions. "I've got you two clients, who are going to give you a budget, and from that budget you are going to provide entertainment or an event. I will be judging the winner on the profit you make, but also on the customer satisfaction," he tells them. The business mogul then appointed Leah Totton as project manager of Endeavour and Francesca MacDuff-Varley as leader of Evolve. The two teams were given two days and a budget of £5,000 to create and run an away day that met the brief of a major corporate client.
Endeavour struggled to agree on a theme during their brainstorming session, with Neil Clough backing 'Back to School'. PM Leah, 24, disagreed, preferring instead the idea of a 'Historic Medieval' away day. Despite the team voting for the school theme, Leah overruled her teammates and decided to go ahead with her historical idea. "Leah has been in the boardroom complaining that she hasn't followed her gut instinct," aide Karren Brady observed. "Well, she's done that today. She's gone with the theme of history, much against the majority of her team." Later in the day, doctor Leah was forced to reconsider her decision when questioning whether her medieval choice met the client's brief of 'improving listening and communication skills'. With that in mind, she told her sub-team, "We have tried to come up with a theme that we can run throughout the day with medieval. We drew a blank, so we've moved to 'Army'." Rebecca, who described herself "as authentic, generous and adventurous", although she admitted she can be "very impatient", leaves behind ten remaining hopefuls.