You’re hired: Brady’s backing for apprenticeship schemes

In an interview with the Yorkshire Post, the businesswoman backed Chancellor George Osborne’s economic policies and said the country is “in safe hands”.

Miss Brady is due to open for the Chancellor at next week’s Conservative Party conference.

The right-hand woman of Lord Sugar on TV’s The Apprentice said she is “all for” Government schemes to promote apprenticeships.

She added: “Obviously it’s something I know a bit about.

“I think it’s really important that you can learn a trade and earn a living at the same time. It makes sense.”

Miss Brady was speaking to promote the Nectar Business Small Business Awards. She was a judge in the fifth annual awards.

She said: “I think it’s a good time to set up a business. There’s lots more happening now than ever before with various different tax breaks.”

She added that the people running small businesses she met on the awards programme are thinking carefully about how they expand as the economy starts to turn.

Miss Brady, who began her working life at 18, said: “It’s really important to me to encourage small businesses. I love meeting young entrepreneurs and people setting up businesses in later life.”

Miss Brady started her career in the advertising industry at Saatchi and Saatchi and in 1988 became a director at Sport Newspapers Ltd, publisher of the Sunday Sport.

She was managing director of Birmingham City FC from 1993 to 2009 and in 2010 was appointed vice chairman of West Ham United.

She said the most important thing for entrepreneurs is “to have a plan and a really clear idea of what your product or service can offer”.

Miss Brady said the biggest challenges for people setting up new businesses are making the first step and the hard work. “You are everything from the tea lady to the finance director. It can be very demanding,” she added.

But the rewards can be incredible, said Miss Brady, who is a non-executive director of Arcadia, Mothercare, Sport England and Syco.