Kenya joined Blackheath High School in 2022 in Year 12 from a girls’ school in Bexley with big ambitions - she wanted to study hard, make good friends and find some clues to her future, whatever that might look like. Friendships were immediate – Year 12 welcomed her with open arms and she found the transition to Blackheath High wonderfully stress-free. She was also no stranger to hard work – taking Maths, Physics and Psychology kept her very busy, alongside an EPQ focused on the “use of disabilities and disfigurements to represent villains in films” and active roles on the Sixth Form Netball Team (an even bigger challenge as she had never actually played netball before), in Drama productions and at our annual Fashion Show. She even learned to crochet at Miss Masters’ enrichment society! 

When it came to her future, things were less clear – she knew she wanted to study Business or Engineering but she wasn’t sure about leaving home, and university didn’t quite feel like the right fit. After some reflection and conversations with her mum, she realised her real dream was to actually go into a company and explore business from the ground up. With support from the Blackheath High Sixth Form team and Ms Day, our Head of Futures, Kenya began to explore apprenticeships – and soon discovered the innovative Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Apprenticeship at media company Warner Bros Discovery. 

Kenya felt the first flutters of excitement as she explored the course but first she had to get accepted – and with more than 2,000 applicants, this was no mean feat. The three-stage process began with CV screening – luckily Blackheath High has specialist support for this, and together they created a CV that reflected many of Kenya’s skills, including non-academic interests and achievements such as her volunteering with our innovative SHINE Masterclass programme, which sees Sixth Formers devising and running classes for Year 5 pupils in the local community. Step two was a series of essay-style questions, again with support from the BHS team, which she passed with flying colours. The final hurdle was an assessment day – by this point, there were only eight candidates in the running and they negotiated a series of team and individual tasks including developing an idea and presenting it to a team, and planning an event. 

Kenya was thrilled to discover she had been selected for the apprenticeship in the summer, and has now been working at Warner Bros for three months. With a remit to promote diversity, remove barriers, and create space for their workforce to share ideas and be heard, she works with internal and external teams on global creative output. Reporting into the Creative & Production teams, her day is incredibly varied and includes meetings to discuss projects she’s working on; project admin; researching DEI facts and info on various topics; and feeding back to her manager with updates. She has also worked on an internal event bringing all her various teams together. 

One day a week is set aside for studying a Level 3 qualification in Business Administration, which includes online modules, live lectures and assignments. The entire apprenticeship is 18 months long and she will take exams at the end, which will involve delivering presentations to an external panel and completing a series of written assignments. She will then have discussions with her manager about next steps, which will include options to take on a full-time role or move on to a degree apprenticeship. 

Kenya’s advice for anyone considering a degree apprenticeship is:  

• Go for it! Don’t be scared to apply – you have nothing to lose. It feels daunting but just take it one step at a time 

• Once you’re in the application process, try to be the most interesting person in the room. Give your answers some depth, create a point of difference and make yourself memorable 

• Have a parallel plan – Kenya’s backup was a Business degree and she had completed her UCAS form to give her options 

• Apprenticeships v. university is a very personal decision – create a pros and cons list to analyse what is important to you  

• Follow what you believe is right 

• Apprenticeships are fun! She has made friends, gets to network, socialise and take part in events specifically for apprentices and interns 

Huge thanks to Kenya for running an inspirational Wollstonecraft Talk for our current Year 12 & 13, and for taking part in this interview. We can’t wait to see where your career takes you!