Season three of Donald Trump’s “The Apprentice” already promises to give us more workplace knowledge than the wildly successful second season of the NBC reality show.

Why? Because the brilliant story line – pitting street-smart entrepreneurial high school graduates against college thoroughbreds – makes all of us, no matter how sports-phobic, pick sides and start rooting.

Imagine, a 9-on-9 made for television battle royale to decide whether a college education is worth it. This is a question all of us (especially those paying college loans) desperately want answered.

Here is the bottom line: If episode one’s result is any indicator, it is time to put education on the back burner. In the contest to sell a specialty burger for Burger King, the high schoolers soundly defeated the college team.

For his poor leadership, the college grad team leader, 34-year-old University of Miami alum Todd, got the Trump-A-Dump. He was sent from the suite to the street for two failures: an awfully bad burger promotion, and training too few cashiers to serve the mealtime rush. Lucky for us, the way he was grilled and eaten for lunch by the diploma-challenged team, Todd and his educated group gave us plenty of lessons to use in our own workplaces and on our own jobs.

Episode Turning Points

Mr. Trump set the stage by dividing the nine women and nine men into two groups: those with a college degree, and those without. Then he surprised us by noting that the high school grads earned three times as much as the collegiates. The diploma-free gang took Mr. Trump’s tally to heart and named themselves NetWorth, while the four women and five men with sheepskins decided to call themselves Magna (after the college rank with great distinction, Magna Cum Laude).

Episode one featured the two teams running separate Manhattan Burger King stores for a day. The winner was the team who sold the most of a featured burger, which each team picked from a group of the fast food chain’s new product line. Winning team Net-Worth, headed by technology entrepreneur John, chose the western angus burger and used a cowboy theme and free trip for two to Las Vegas to outsell Magna by 182 burgers to 139.

Losers Magna, by contrast, chose the triple cheese angus burger and struck out with a “triple play” baseball theme that was ill-conceived and poorly executed by Todd and this season’s wacky guy, Danny – who designated himself “marketing vice president and chief morale officer.”

Winners NetWorth earned dinner in the exclusive wine cellar of New York’s ultrachic 21 Club with Mr. Trump and Melania. Meanwhile, losing project manager Todd brought Alex and guitar playing Danny into the board room with him to face The Donald. Nearly all firing fingers pointed at Danny for his embarrassingly bad burger promotion. But the only finger that counts, Mr. Trump’s, pointed at Todd for his utter lack of leadership. Todd won the dubious distinction of being the season’s first candidate to hear “You’re Fired!” Now Todd must wait the longest, locked under around-the-clock surveillance (albeit with 24 hour, seven days a week access to hotel room service), until this season’s final episode airs in 15 weeks. Oh, the agony of defeat.

Lessons Learned.

LESSON ONE. A great story line is your greatest asset.

Season two’s ratings were lower than season one’s for one simple reason: season two lacked a compelling story. Season three’s “street smarts vs. book smarts” theme connects with everyone, whether viewers have a high school diploma or two or three advanced degrees. This storyline will put “The Apprentice” back on people’s minds at work.

The lesson is this: if you are not connecting with your customers, maybe it is time to update your story.

LESSON TWO. By not having enough cashiers, the Magna team was unable to achieve their one and only goal: selling burgers. Even though the cardboard baseball promotion was cheesy, lunchtime will bring customers regardless; without the ability to promptly process their transactions, you have failed. Their lack of attention to actual point-of-sale cost is a telling sign that their academic training may not play in the real world.

LESSON THREE. Leadership is not taught in a book.

The Donald learned leadership not from his Wharton degree, but from his hardscrabble father Frederick Trump, who owned low-end buildings throughout New York City’s five boroughs. Later in his career, Mr. Trump wrote the bestselling book “The Art Of The Deal,” but none of its lessons came from the classroom. The leadership lesson of season three of “The Apprentice” may just be that the street might be a better teacher than America’s highly touted and high-priced colleges. Stay tuned.

Mr. Whitehead is an accomplished author and consultant on workplace issues and careers. He can be reached at trumponomics@aol.com.