The Gateway to Employment in Sports Media- Why Work Placements can Hold the Key to Kickstart any Career with Alex Wallace

Second-year student Max Drinkwater-James spoke to Llanelli Town media officer and The Sport Focus chief editor Alex Wallace about his experiences as a graduate, how a work placement kickstarted his career and his tips for any aspiring sports journalists.

Alex is a former University of South Wales graduate from the sports journalism course. Since his graduation, he has spent three years working with Llanelli Town whom he had worked with on work experience during his studies.

“So I've always loved sport. I did media production at college, so I learned key skills regarding video, audio, and other things like that in college, but I wanted to make my work more sport-oriented. 

“I also enjoyed sort of writing different articles and stuff in college, volunteering with a few small publications.

“So when I saw there was a course in Cardiff I could do. I wanted to apply to it, managed to get onto the course and then started learning different skills that you do on the course.





“Then I found the opportunity to volunteer with Llanelli, and then after about a year and a half with them, volunteering just in a trial role, they decided to give me the media officer position, which has been fantastic. Obviously, with that as well, there are so many different skills that go into that position.”

Alex also offered advice for graduates who are nearing the world of employment, drawing from his own experiences, he offered some great insight into what essential skills can make post-graduation life much easier.

It can be scary, you know, opportunities are limited a lot of the time. I see Wales as a place where there needs to be a bit more opportunity for people. Obviously, in football, for example, if you're looking for a professional role, you're quite limited in football, given there are Cardiff, Swansea, Newport, Wrexham, you know, four professional clubs.





“But if you're outside of Wales and, you know, if you're looking to branch into different sports as well, there are lots of opportunities. I just think it is important to have a strong CV, which doesn't just come from your overall grade, though.

“I think that's a really important thing if you come to the point where you graduate and you'll be worried about that final grade, and perhaps you'll limit yourself from gaining extra experience.

“I think it's important to keep that balance going into a final year or a final couple of months in your projects, in your work in uni, is to, you know, don't lose that touch on what you're doing if it's just work experience.”

The full interview with Alex can be found below: