Tonight in the race for the £25,000 cash prize from Lord Sugar, Zara Brownless was named by Lord Sugar as winner of Young Apprentice 2011.

Zara fought of strong competition from James McCullagh in wht was a very close and inspiring contest to secure the funds to go towards kick-starting her business career.

Zara is now only the second ever Young Apprentice and will now continue to concentrate on her education before further developing her existing film company, following in the footsteps of 2010’s Junior Apprentice winner Arjun Rajyagor.

In this evening’s final, Zara and  James created and developed a brand new online video game and an accompanying viral advert before pitching their ideas to industry experts alongside Lord Sugar himself.

The finalists had to create their own gaming demo; coming up with a name, a playable level and exploring its expansion potential into spin-offs or merchandise as well as filming a visual advert that could go viral and drive gamers to their product.

To achieve this, Zara and  James were joined by their former colleague in the competition. Lord Sugar chose the teams assigning Ben, Mahamed, Harry M, Gbemi and Haya to work with Zara to develop ‘Piggy Panic’ a platform game which required users to help the main character Porky Pete escape from a butcher.

Meanwhile James, joined by Lewis, Harry H, Lizzie and Hannah,  developed ‘Crazy Cabinet’ a game that allowed the player to assume the role of Prime-Minister in a time management challenge. On return to the boardroom scene, Lord Sugar expressed just how blown away he was with their efforts as he reflected: “You have to keep reminding yourself that they are only 17, it is spectacular stuff.”

After the usual boardroom debates followed by a period where James and Zara critiqued each other’s weaknesses, Lord Sugar delivered is final summing up, he said: “Zara you’re calm, articulate and you look to be in control of your emotions which is a good thing when you’re in business.”

Reflecting on her win, Zara said: “To say this is a dream come true doesn’t even come close – I’ve loved the whole Young Apprentice experience and taken so much from it, and now I’m so excited about what the future holds for my business career.”

Lord Sugar added: “It was a hugely tough decision but Zara really showed wisdom and clarity far beyond her years. I look forward to seeing her develop her film company into a hugely successful business. James was a very worthy finalist and a great salesman throughout the process. The world of business is his oyster.”