BUDDING businessman Charles Burns has proved his worth as he goes through to the third week of The Apprentice.

The second task set by Lord Sugar saw 24-year-old Charles assist in the interior design of a five-star hotel on the outskirts of West London.

Radcliffe-based Charles and his fellow apprentices were summoned to Stoke Park, in South Buckinghamshire, to pull on their overalls and undertake a bedroom re-design.

In the episode which aired on BBC1 last night, Charles, who originally hails from Prestwich, found himself on the losing side for the second week running.

However, he managed to keep a low profile and do enough to avoid being pulled into the boardroom by project manager Ross Fretten.

Charles said: "This week it was more about listening for me. The dressing down I got in the boardroom last week made it imperative that I take more of a back seat but also make sure that I added to the task and contributed to the success.

"I'm very pleased to move into week three. We are almost a quarter of the way through the process and things are heating up."

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Team Vitality, with digital product consultant Ross as lead and James White as sub team leader, was broken down into a design and buying team.

Charles was on the latter, with competitors Ross, Jeff Wan, and Sajan Shah.

Charles said: "While James and his team were painting the room we were purchasing items.

"I looked after going to a creative studio and came up with a theme, a concept and the idea behind the re-design.

"The infamous scene is the mood board we created. It is quite eclectic."

The team pursue a travel theme, and, with Great Britain in mind, work to a red, blue and white colour scheme.

"It was going well until James called to say we needed yellow in there as well", Charles said.

"It looked deathly. It was like a children's play room.

"But we were so confident we would win. I was the only one to pack my suitcase when we went to the boardroom."

The group had to work in a feature wall and a type of graphic that linked the theme of the room with the colours, for which they chose a suitcase, much to Charles' displeasure.

The group proceeded to source various items to decorate the bedroom but no budget had been set.

Charles said: "Costing was given to Jeff but it was shocking to see how bad his maths skills are.

"I had to step in and help which hopefully showed my credibility.

"In the end he fluffs his lines during the pitch to the hotel manager and interior designer, gets his terms and figures all wrong, which results in him being fired."

Charles added: "In the first few tasks there are quite a few teething problems. I think going forward we will work better together.

"I'm hoping next week our communication improves. The girls have been better at that which is why they won."