Lord Sugar named best business role model in the UK

Celebrity entrepreneur Kim Kardashian ranked third

41 per cent of UK student have voted for the multi-millionaire tycoon Lord Sugar as best business role model

The star of BBC One’s The Apprentice programme, Lord Alan Sugar was named best business role model by UK students ahead of Apple's CEO Tim Cook and Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson.

Over 40 per cent of UK students have voted for the multi-millionaire tycoon Lord Sugar as best business role model for young people, while celebrity entrepreneur Kim Kardashian ranked third ahead of Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook and Marissa Meyer CEO of Yahoo!

More than a quarter of young people claim to have learnt key employability skills from BBC’s Apprentice, a programme in which candidates compete to go into business with Lord Sugar,

According to the poll of 1,000 UK students by leading financial education charity Young Enterprise the show has reinforced the importance of essential attributes like innovation teamwork and integrity, according to the study.

Asked where else they are gaining fundamental employment skills, nearly half of UK students said they have developed these through their own experiences such as part-time work,while 45 per cent have learnt from family members or schools.

According to Michael Mercieca, CEO of Young Enterprise parents and school should do more to expose young people to entrepreneurial education.

“When TV stars are the most popular business role models for young people, we need to ask whether schools, government and parents are doing enough to expose students to business and entrepreneurial education. The Apprentice can be applauded for making great TV, but young people need to be actively developing their communication, teamwork, problem-solving, creativity and resilience skills – rather than just sitting back and watching them on TV,” he said.

Top 8 business role models for UK students:

Lord Alan Sugar - Business tycoon and media personality (41%)

Lord Sugar has been firing hopefuls for a decade on the UK version of The Apprentice (Getty)

Sir Richard Branson - Founder of Virgin Group (27%)

Sir Richard Branson was speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show (PA)

Kim Kardashian - Celebrity entrepreneur (9%)

(Getty Images)

Baroness Karren Brady - Vice-Chairman of West Ham FC (5%)

(Getty)

Tim Cook - CEO of Apple (4%)

(AFP/Getty Images)

Evan Spiegel - CEO of Snapchat (4%)

Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel speaks onstage in San Francisco, California in 2014 (Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Vanity Fair)

Larry Page - CEO of Alphabet (4%)

(AP)

Marissa Mayer - CEO of Yahoo! (3%)

Marissa Mayer is the chief executive of the tech company Yahoo! (Getty)