Former student returns to inspire young creatives

A familiar face recently returned to Gower College Swansea’s Gorseinon Campus as former student Billie-Jo Matthews stepped in to help inspire the next generation of young creatives.

Billie-Jo completed a Level 3 Extended BTEC in Creative Media at Gower College Swansea before progressing to Swansea University to pursue a BA (Hons) in Media and Communications, followed by a MSc in Strategic Marketing.

She has also worked within the creative marketing and social media sectors, both with large tech companies and as a freelancer.

Throughout that time, Billie-Jo stayed in touch with her lecturers and when Curriculum Leader for Creative Media, Jarrod Waldie, mentioned some freelancing opportunities at the College, Billie-Jo was delighted to get involved.  

“I loved my BTEC course and feel that it helped me immensely in developing my creative abilities,” she says “I really enjoyed my time as an assistant around the classroom, giving guidance to students on their creative projects and learning how a classroom works from the other side! Watching these young people flourish in their creative abilities is wonderful and I really enjoyed being able to give them an insight into being a successful freelancer in the industry.”

Next up for Billie-Jo is a PhD in Media and Communications at Swansea University which she is really looking forward to.

“My project is going to explore how disadvantaged people in society are affected by social media and surveillance capitalism,” says Billie-Jo. “I'm hoping that eventually I can work as a lecturer and deliver talks to improve media literacy and online safety to those within disadvantaged demographics.”