Genie Live returned for its third year on Thursday 3rd July, 2025 at the historic ‘home of the codebreakers’ – Bletchley Park.
Hosted by Anna Morrison CBE, with keynote speaker Heather Fisher, we immersed ourselves in a day packed with inspiration and insight.
As always – we focused on widening access to opportunity through apprenticeships and explored best practice from around the country.
As we celebrate 10 years of Amazing Apprenticeships, we wanted to bring our network of delegates to an inspirational venue with historic importance.
Bletchley Park stands as a testament to human ingenuity and the power of inclusion, offering our guests a fascinating glimpse into the world of wartime espionage, and the importance of setting aside traditional recruitment methods to achieve different results.
Located just 40 minutes from London Euston by direct train, the venue is a few minutes’ walk from Bletchley train station.
There is also ample free on-site parking, with the venue sitting just 15 minutes’ drive from Junction 13 of the M1 motorway.
The car park includes disabled parking spaces and two electric car charging points for visitors to use.
We welcomed over 150 changemakers from apprenticeship employers in the country to collectively explore how apprenticeships can widen access to opportunity and drive transformational change.
As well as hearing from the incredible keynote speaker, Heather Fisher, we immersed ourselves in creative thinking and problem solving. We usied the grounds of Bletchley Park, including the iconic Mansion House to host our interactive and engaging business-led workshops across a number of interesting topics and themes.
No trip to Bletchley Park would be complete without a tour of the spacious grounds and archives. Guests were also able to undertake a self-guided tour at lunchtime, and at the end of the event – to visit Turing’s office, thoughtfully restored codebreaking huts, and of course the world’s first programmable digital computer – the Bombe.
Birmingham-based Rugby World Cup winner and former GB bobsledder, Heather is an accomplished elite athlete, motivational speaker, LGBT advocate and media personality with her own BBC radio podcast.
After a difficult start in life and teenage struggles with anorexia , Heather quickly found she excelled in the sports arena.
Breaking her back in four places in her late 20s left her in a full-body cast for 18 months and triggered alopecia which impacted her self-confidence and perception of herself. Never to be held down, she learnt to crawl, walk and finally run again before returning to international sport and was quickly back at the top of her game.
Rugby highlights include competing in five Rugby World Cups and winning in 2014, winning four Six Nations, medalling at the Commonwealth Games and representing Team GB in the Olympic Games Rio 2016.
Since retiring as an athlete, she has become an accomplished motivational speaker, MC an event host and has taken on a number of TV and radio opportunities. Building on her stint on Celebrity SAS Who Dares Wins, she became a celebrity warrior on BBC survival show Go Hard or Go Home.
Heather also does extensive charity work raising money for young people with autism and for those with alopecia.
Amazing Apprenticeships and the Genie programme collaborated with Comfort Cases UK as this year’s Genie Live Charity Event Partner.
1 child enters the care system every 15 minutes in the UK. 1 in 10 children move 3 times in their first year. Many children who enter care have experienced neglect, abuse or other forms of trauma. Entering care ensures their needs are met when they cannot live with their own family. Comfort Cases are backpacks filled with comfort and personal care essentials for children entering the care system, or being supported by charities or other organisations working with care experienced young people.
At Comfort Cases UK, we believe that every child deserves to pack their belongings in a special bag that they can call their very own. They deserve to feel loved, valued and keep their cherished belongings safe from loss and damage during the traumatic transition into care or when moving to a new setting. Children and young people who have experience of foster care tell us how important it is to feel loved, valued and supported (The Fostering Network). With over 100,000 children currently living away from home, and a further 100,000 expected to enter the care system in the next 10 years, this need is more urgent than ever.
