Past candidate of BBC’s The Apprentice returns to NTU to mentor current Arts and Humanities students

Elizabeth McKenna graduated with BA (Hons) International Relations and Global Politics in 2005, and featured on BBC’s The Apprentice in 2017.

Past candidate of BBC’s The Apprentice, Elizabeth McKenna, has returned to Nottingham Trent University as an Alumni Fellow this academic year. NTU’s Alumni Fellowship Programme provides opportunities for alumni from all academic schools to donate their time to support and inspire our students on a voluntary basis. From mentoring and mock interviews, to providing guest lectures, Elizabeth will spend up to 15 hours helping students with their employability skills and inspiring them to develop their careers. This academic year we are proud to have over 850 alumni fellows supporting students.

Elizabeth studied BA (Hons) International Relations and Global Politics as a mature student, graduating in 2005. She found that studying a humanities subject allowed her to develop transferable skills, as well as valuable knowledge that she has used throughout her career. She told us: “Taking a degree in any subject within academia will without doubt expose a student to several disciplines. The mixed choice within a humanities degree allowed me to shape my learning to benefit what I was actually interested in and as such has given me knowledge that I have come to apply even more in the last few years than I did when I first graduated”.

Speaking about her time at NTU, Elizabeth told us: “I had a great time at NTU, though I have to admit I was much more on the spend time in the library collective than spend time in the SU collective. The open and non-stuffy approach to teaching and learning suited me very well and I feel it gave me the confidence to explore the curriculum and soak up as much from it as I possibly could. When I was in lectures and seminars, it sparked my brain, sometimes fried it, and I came away with such a lot every day”.

Since appearing on BBC’s The Apprentice in 2017, Elizabeth has been building on her floristry business, as well as continuing to take various media opportunities such as appearing on BBC Radio Nottingham. She has developed Elizabeth McKenna Flowers over the last year and even expanded to a corporate gifting service, named Lizzie’s Bundles. Both companies are Nottingham-based businesses and Elizabeth plans to stay in the city due to its fantastic potential for expansion and investment.

Offering our Arts and Humanities students her advice and expertise will be incredibly useful, illustrating the wealth of transferable skills humanities degrees can provide and their potential for a wide range of careers. Elizabeth also hopes to learn from our students, as she told us what she’s most looking forward to about being an alumni fellow: “I am looking forward to re-energising my brain. One can get into a mindset on a given trajectory in one’s career and I hope that through being around the campus, and interacting with students, my mind sparks. And I hope that I may be able to spark up someone else's brain”.

Find out more about the Alumni Fellowship Programme