Inspiring Diverse Talent

In May, we teamed up with Samsung to welcome the Black Collective of Media in Sport (BCOMS) to our Samsung studio for a masterclass event.

BCOMS supports youth from underrepresented communities and works to help diversify the sports and media industry – including race, gender, disability, sexual orientation and religion – issues that are very close to our hearts. So, when our Chief Strategy Officer, Kirsti Horne, first met BCOMS’ Andrew DuCille last year, we knew we had to get involved to help support their mission and our own For Good strategy.

The aim of the day was to give the BCOMS team a deep insight and hands-on experience of what it’s like to work within our Samsung Mobile Experience (MX) Training Team from content creation to presenting and postproduction. All with a view of helping to broaden the group’s knowledge, understand more about the industry and open their eyes to the myriad ways to start out and truly tap into a career that reflects their own core passions. It was also an opportunity to network, make connections and, hopefully, support their future careers.

BCOMS Programme Manager, Jack Badu, kicked off the day with more info on BCOMS, followed by Kirsti who shared context about Blue Square’s mission and work.

Our other key speakers, Shaun Harvey, Jordan Myers, Ralph Lim and Grace King also took to the stage, sharing personal stories from starting out at work, to their career journeys to date and learnings they believe are fundamental to building a successful career in the industry.

Our special guest, Dave Thompson (Head of Training at Samsung), then shared his personal journey with the group, including the diverse work he is involved in with Samsung’s ERG and Black Professionals Group.

After some lunch and networking, it was time to get hands-on with our MX Training Team who hosted a multimedia skills sessions giving BCOMS attendees a chance to try their hand at storyboarding, lighting, using a teleprompter and Open Broadcast Software (OBS) live streaming.

We then asked our own Talent Acquisition team, led by Louise Coulbeck, our Head of TA, to come in and chat over our recruitment process, what we look for at application and interview stage, and the roles we have available whilst Charlotte Cunningham, Talent Acquisition Manager at Blue Square, shared her experience of completing an apprenticeship with us, how it’s helped progress her career and the benefits of learning in this way.

The day was incredibly positive with our BCOMS attendees rating it 4.5/5 – they particularly loved the practical skills sessions and hearing personal journeys. Without doubt, core takeaways focused on the importance of networking, taking advantage of opportunities when they arise and being open to learning new things.

We’re excited to collaborate and work on more events like this in the future to support learning, development and social mobility especially with BCOMS. The attendees, Grant, Finnian, Shahad, Serena-Ulrica, Tasmin and Munir were fantastic, sparky, engaged and a real pleasure to chat to and share learnings with.

These things are so important to us which is why we’re soon launching the Blue Square Academy: Home of Learning, to invest in our people’s growth, curiosity and progression.

For more information about our dream team and the opportunities we offer, check out our People page.