handbag.com meets Yasmina

15 contestants and 12 tasks later and Yasmina is the winner! handbag.com catches up with the new apprentice to see how she feels about beating Kate to the number one spot.

So Yasmina, congratulations! What do you think swung it for you?

I'm feeling absolutely ecstatic, and I'm still in shock that I won. I think Sir Alan made me the apprentice over Kate becuase we are just different people and the kind of job that Sir Alan has lined up for us fits me that much better than somebody like Kate. I think he described it better than anybody could have done in the ‘You're Hired' show when he said "I can't really put into words why I'm hiring Yasmina, it's just a gut instinct", and that speaks volumes in my mind.

He described Kate as being too perfect and robotic in the semi-final. Do you think that went against her?

Yes, I think when he said "too good to be true is not necessarily the best thing" he meant that when people make mistakes you see their true character. If you look at any top players in this country they all say that they have had companies that have failed and I think Sir Alan wanted to see somebody who would really push themselves, even if it meant making mistakes. If you look at my catering task he said that it was the biggest profit he had ever seen anyone ever make but then next week things weren't as good. He really saw me yo yo but then my highs were higher than Kate's so I think it was her perception that was her downfall.

Do you think her relationship with Philip played a part in her downfall?

No I don't think so. I think it caused him some problems and ended up getting him fired along with other reasons. The way Kate handles herself is fantastic, the girl is spot on and the way she dealt with the whole Phil thing was really professional and it didn't affect her on the task or afterwards. I think other women might have cracked under the pressure but she just got on with it.

What exactly does your new job entail?

I'm going to be working for Amscreen which is a digital company owned by Sir Alan but I'm going to be focussing on Amscreen healthcare. Lee McQueen also works for Amscreen, but he works more on the retail side so I'll be working a bit with Lee but I'll be selling the digital side.

How much is that £100,000 a year going to change your life?

I think the job itself is going to change my life. I'm going to be working in a completely different industry and I'm going to be leaving catering which I've got a huge passion for. I'm a pig, I love food and I'm going to have to go out and pay for it now, I can't just go to the fridge and get it! But the money isn't going to change me no. I love going camping, I love eating out and I love spoiling my friends if I've got some money. I'll just be the same old Mina but I'll be working in a different industry.

You had to develop a new chocolate brand in the final task, do you think you had a clear advantage because of your restaurant experience?

Yes, I definitely felt comfortable with the brief because when you've got your own restaurant you're dealing with suppliers and supermarkets all of the time so you're aware of retail and you're aware of how the food industry works as a whole. So when I read the brief I thought, 'ok I can imagine that there's going to be top end chocolatiers in the centre of town and you're going to have cheaper chocolates sold in supermarkets'. I got that straight away which worked to my advantage but it's probably no more knowledge than you guys would have had anyway.

You took a bit of a risk with the unusual tasting chocolates

The chocolates that shock! Yeah, but that was the point, it was a shocking box of chocolates and looking back on that whole task it shows I'm willing to take that risk. I wanted to have shocking chocolates and I wanted dancers with wicked bright pink colours which is a big part of my personality. You really can't win the apprentice without taking risks and I think I've proven that.

It was an all-women final and almost all women semi-final, do you think women are better in business than men?

No, I don't think so. Sir Alan just chose the strongest candidates and they happened to be women and other years he's done the same and they've happened to be men. I don't think the gender issue has much to do with it.

Which, out of all the contestants did you enjoy working with the most?

I think you gravitate towards certain character traits and then there are people who are quite similar to you who you tend to clash with. Debra and I clashed because we were so similar and we found it hard to work with each other. In the final task I got to work with Howard for the first time and I found working with him such a pleasure, he's a really nice guy. I enjoyed working with everybody really but I always knew from the beginning that Kate was going to be my biggest contender.

Were there ever any moments when you just wanted to tell Sir Alan to just shut up?

Absolutely not no! But I was only in the final three once so he didn't really give me a grilling then perhaps as much as he did with the others, maybe because I'd done so well in the catering task and I think he just wanted to let me know I'd made a big balls of it but he was going to give me another chance. So, even at my lowest point with him it wasn't low enough for me to think that he wasn't saying the right thing and everything that I heard him say was valid and deserved

Did you ever doubt your ability and think you weren't up to the job?

Yeah loads! In the final task just before the presentation, I've never been so scared in my life. I've never given a presentation before and I was in this huge room and I could just hear the murmur of a hundred voices. I was waiting to walk on and I didn't know if I was going to mess it up, I was just terrified. Not only that but I knew it was going to be on TV as well and I was up against Kate who was the pitcher of the series, well, the pitcher of the last five apprentices probably.

How brutal were those interviews? Did they make you think twice about what you put on your CV?

Yeah, Claude and I had a pretty bad time, but they push your buttons to see how you react to things so they can see what your personality is like. That interview with Claude was my first interview of the day and I hadn't thought about my company accounts in a while, maybe three or four months, so I got all flustered and he asked me what was the difference between net and gross and I couldn't even answer that, but obviously I know what the difference is. Then it came up again a couple of interviews later and I got it sorted out in my head so Sir Alan was happy. There's nothing wrong with my CV, it's just that I got flustered and floundered while being interviewed.

There's going to be a Junior Apprentice next year. What advice would you give to 16 and 17 year-olds thinking of applying?

Fill out the application form and really just go for it! Don't be scared and think that it's going to be quite as savage as the adult Apprentice as well because I've heard that they're going to take a more softly, softly  approach, so you don't have to be loud and be able to shout to be on it. If you think you've got a bit of a talent and want to have a crack at showing off your skills then apply.

Gordon Brown has made Sir Alan enterprise tsar in his cabinet reshuffle. What about Sir Alan for prime minster?

I think Sir Alan would be a great prime minister because he's got real business skills that would work in parliament but maybe more in the department of trade and industry. But, on the other hand, I think running the country is a really hard job and I'd want Sir Alan to have more of a life. I don't think Gordon Brown is really enjoying himself at the moment and, because I really like Sir Alan, I'd hate to see him go through that

For more check out Handbag.com's Apprentice special