The conclusion to the Dawn Meats Apprentice Challenge was just like what you would expect from the reality television series.

As a conclusion to the first year of the Dawn Group Graduate Training Programme, the graduates were divided into 3 teams and ‘hired to run the factory shop at Carroll’s Cross, Kilmacthomas, Co. Waterford’.

The task was set to stretch the graduates’ creative and business skills, but the bottom line was could the teams make that important profit?

At the end of the task, the teams were called to the boardroom to face the CEO and his advisors. Each team was grilled on their performance and the figures tallied up. The teams were given the opportunity through their presentations to influence the CEO in his decision as to which team would be the overall winner.  The presentation had to evaluate each group’s strengths and weaknesses and outline what benefits their suggestions would bring in the future operation of the Factory Shop at Carroll’s Cross. For the graduates the presentation was the most daunting part as it gave the CEO and his advisors the opportunity to delve deep into the performance of each team to find the most deserving team.

Unlike the television series, on this occasion the project manager of the losing team did not have to select two fellow team mates that he or she felt were responsible for the downfall of the team to face the CEO to see which of them would get fired.

At the end of each apprentice challenge in the television series, someone is always judged and found wanting and we hear the famous line ‘You’re fired’.  On this occasion the CEO acknowledged the contributions of all 3 teams to the challenge which proved to be a very worthwhile exercise in putting into practise the creative and business skills developed during the first year of the Graduate Training Programme run in conjunction with the IMI.

To listen to a WLR interview with two of the apprentices (Clive Carter and Cathal Fleming) click the green play button below :