Change Maker: Taiyla Jules on how the Foundation Year built her confidence

Impostor syndrome has never held top performing management graduate Taiyla Jules back – though she says she still experiences it every day.  

“It’s more of a reminder – you do deserve to be here but you can’t become complacent,” she says. “It’s like something simmering away on the stove – but it’s a feeling that just makes me work harder.” 

Taiyla has reached her prestigious job at a media company today thanks to a combination of graft, ability and a social mobility programme run by Warwick Business School – the Foundation Year, which has reached its 10-year milestone.  

Having got this far, Taiyla feels particularly strongly about giving individuals from less privileged beginnings a helping hand in corporate life.  

As she says: “We need to include people from different backgrounds for us all to do well and work better.” 

When she was a little girl growing up in Crayford, South East London, Jules was always the ‘academic one’ of four siblings – study was her niche. She acquired her work ethic early.  

“My parents pushed all of us,” says Taiyla. “My dad’s a scaffolder. Every single day he’d be up at three or four in the morning to go to work. Seeing that structure when I was very young made an impression.”  

Taiyla also learned from her mother, who has set up a couple of small businesses – one baking, another cleaning.  

“She was a role model of hard work. So, I kept my head down and worked. I felt the [academic route] for me was written in the stars.” 

After top grades at GCSE, Taiyla opted for maths and sciences, imagining her future career lay somewhere in science. But it was economics that captivated her.  

The 26 year-old adds: “I have always been naturally inquisitive, and it gave me a way to look at the world – this is why businesses operate as they do, this is how economics impacts policy.”  

But with lower-than-expected predicted A level grades, top universities appeared out of reach for Taiyla – until she came across the Foundation Year at WBS, which offers a supported route into an Undergraduate degree for students with potential but who don’t meet the required grades.   

Taiyla, who qualified for free school meals at her school and so ticked one of the entry criteria for under-represented groups, achieved Maths (B), Chemistry (C) and Economics (C) at A level. 

She jumped at the opportunity to join a business school, whose Undergraduate programmes are ranked first and second in the UK by The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide, and spent a year on the programme.  

“I didn’t get the shining grades but here I was among so many smart people,” she says. “The pastoral care and support on the Foundation Year was a game changer for me.” 

She went on to graduate four years later with a First in BSc Management.  

“At that point I thought ‘the world’s my oyster’,” says Taiyla, and she secured a consultancy job with Accenture in 2022.  

Getting there had required characteristic levels of dedication – she’d tried for various internships and won the graduate role after completing a week-long programme ‘Empowering Black Futures’ for the second time.  

She credits her Foundation Year with equipping her with the language of business and familiarity with corporate life – as an 18 year-old she was able to job-shadow for a month at market research company Kantar.  

“It was a great early experience,” says Taiyla. “I had no clue initially but they guided us, suggested things we should do, questions we should ask.”  

Her management degree was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown, but Taiyla kept in contact with academics from her Foundation Year. Their support was critical as she progressed and survived the COVID years. 

“I had that connection and they always made the effort to offer great advice academically and professionally,” she says. “My transition to higher education was a shock to the system at first but there was so much support. I think WBS has this secret formula that breeds very ambitious students.” 

She has worked for more than a year as a Senior Transformation Analyst at media company Global, which produces content and advertising across radio, digital and outdoor platforms.  

Taiyla says: “My job is to look at ways to improve efficiency across the business – see how we can improve, whether that’s a change of team, process or technology.”  

Today she’s convinced her future lies in people management and leadership in some form or other: “And I’d be really interested in being able to manage more high level strategic projects within the company.” 

Her current role doesn’t always come easy – building relationships with colleagues while pushing for efficiencies can seem at cross purposes, “especially when you are working with people with very strong opinions – stakeholder management is probably the most challenging element to my job”. 

And it is a job that has allowed Taiyla and her partner to buy their own house in Dartford. At 25, it was a major achievement given her parents have never been able to afford a mortgage. 

“It is something I am hugely proud of given my background,” says Taiyla.

Over her time in education, she’s picked up several awards, but perhaps the most meaningful was a prize awarded by the head teacher of her secondary school, Haberdashers’ Crayford Academy in South East London, to recognise academic achievement across the board while she was studying for GCSEs.  

“Mine wasn’t the best school in the world but they were very supportive,” she says. “That confirmed to me early on that if I really apply myself and get the work done, it doesn’t go unrecognised.” 

Dismayed by the recent scaling back of diversity programmes in the US, she’s determined to strengthen diversity, equity and inclusion in the companies where she works.  

While at Accenture, she led the company’s Analyst Black Community, a networking group for some 200 members around the UK.  

Taiyla says: “That was so rewarding – tying my passion [for diversity] with meeting like-minded people. I just want to make sure there’s a way we can meet, share stories and support and empower each other – these groups are so important.”  

At Global, she sits on a diversity and inclusion committee, and she’s heartened by the continued commitment of the board.

She says: “We know we need to include different backgrounds for us to do well and work better.” 

Support and allyship from diversity champions across the company is key to success, she says.  

“This doesn’t necessarily have to come from people who grew up poor or disenfranchised,” says Taiyla. “We can all work towards a joint objective to allow people from disadvantaged backgrounds to get access to great opportunities.” 

She knows first-hand how important this is – as a young girl, she never came across people in the roles she now finds herself in. 

“As I’ve got older, I’ve realised that there are different ways to get to the same place” says Taiyla. “The Foundation Year programme, which is all about social mobility, shaped my journey and career, and built my confidence.  

“It’s made me even more excited to see what opportunities there could be in the future to support people like me who’ve come from humble beginnings.” 

Find out about more of our Change Makers at Warwick Business School.