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Tonight possibly the whole of Ireland will be glued to TV3 for the first ever episode of ‘The Apprentice Ireland’.

The format is the same as in the UK and the US, but this time the boss is Bill Cullen, Irish entrepreneur who is offering the successful candidate a role working in his organisation for 12 months and a salary of €100,000.

The 14 candidates, all Generation X and Generation Y leaders we will see have been selected from some 1,400 applicants.

Watching Bill Cullen today on the TV3 breakfast show did however give me a few concerns. He claimed that the candidates are stronger than those in the UK as the UK candidates were ‘over educated’.

That’s a warning bell to me as surely the intent is not to say to our young leaders that education is not relevant? Not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur and the success Bill Cullen has enjoyed is certainly not experienced by the majority of entrepreneurs today.

He did, after all, have an unusual start in life and as he shared in the TV3 interview, he was selling from the age of 3 and he attributes his mother having taught him everything he knows by the age of 13 years.

Yes there will be some comparison of The Apprentice Ireland to the shows in the UK – what we might however learn is something of what an entrepreneur like Bill Cullen believes is important to be successful in Ireland today.

In the interview on TV3 with Mark Cagney and Sinéad Desmond on this morning’s Ireland AM, Bill Cullen admitted that he had already identified four potential winners when the show started but changed their minds as the show progressed.

Here is a summary of the 14 candidates we’ll be missing tonight before one is fired as detailed on the TV3 Apprentice Ireland website:

Stuart Butler, Age: 31, Career: Business Development Manager
Qualifications: Certificate in Sales & Marketing

Sarah Cowley, Age: 32, Career: Advertising Sales Manager
Qualifications: Diploma in Advertising

Avril Daly, Age: 24, Career: Recruitment Consultant
Qualifications: Graduate Diploma in Advertising, PR & Marketing

Shane Davey, Age: 29, Career: National Account Manager
Qualifications: Masters in Management Consultancy

Orla McAdam, Age: 24, Career: Medical Sales Representative
Qualifications: Certificate in Auctioneer, Valuations and Estate Agency

Joanna Murphy, Age: 33, Career: Sales Director of a supply company
Qualifications: Degree in Business Studies

David Neary, Age: 25, Career: Assistant Brand Manager
Qualifications: Masters of business studies in marketing

Nicky O’Callaghan, Age: 26,Career: Auctioneer
Qualifications: Certificate in PR

Paddy O’Dea, Age: 26, Career: Senior Sales Executive
Qualifications: Diploma in I.T.

Mark O’Rourke, Age: 26, Career: Company Director
Qualifications: Leaving Certificate

Orla Power, Age: 34, Career: Head of Marketing for software company
Qualifications: Diploma in Marketing, Advertising, PR & Sales Management

Derek Ramsey, Age: 26, Career: Regional Sales Manager
Qualifications: Diploma in Business and Commerce

Brenda Shanahan, Age: 32, Career: Bridal Shop Owner
Qualifications: Leaving Certificate

Ronan Whitty, Age: 27, Career: Yield Analyst
Qualifications: MBS in Strategic Management & Planning, Higher Diploma in Entrepreneurial Studies, B.A. Economics & Information Studies

I certainly wish all the candidates every success – you can be sure their every move will be scrutinised and dissected in the press, on TV, in blogs, forums, social networking sites, at the water cooler and in the pub! Their personal brand and reputation is at stake.

And if you are one of the 14 or know one of the 14 – make sure they head off to purchase their own name as a domain name before someone else does and puts off a spoof blog – there is already an unofficial blog for The Apprentice Ireland!