A UCFB alumnus from Queensland has been speaking to us about the Australian sports industry, where he now plies his trade, in comparison to the British sports industry.
Matt Skilton moved to the UK from Australia to study BA (Hons) Multimedia Sports Journalism at Wembley, where he graduated in 2021.
After graduating, Matt went back to Australia where he worked as a journalist and then editor at the Ministry of Sport before setting up his own business as a freelance marketing, communications, PR and social media specialist.
Having worked in sports media both in the UK and Australia, he spoke about the similarities and differences between the two.
“In some ways, they are very similar,” Matt said, “and in others it's completely different.
“There’s a massive sport culture in Australia, so really no matter who's playing, stadiums can sell out just like you'd see with a Premier League or rugby game.
“A major difference is the number of professional clubs. The UK has hundreds more, mainly because of the promotion and relegation systems, this makes competition for work as a staff member and even athletes vying for a spot on a team way higher.
“Additionally, sport media is also highly competitive, due to the scarce amount of broadcasters that air different sports. This also applies to publications with their being a small number of major organisations.”
Talking about his time studying at UCFB, he said: “It gave me a head start against others applying for similar jobs in sport because of how specialised it is.
“The multimedia aspect also helped me in the digital media age as it gave me the knowledge to succeed online.
“Additionally working with video, photo and social media in my degree helped me bring that into my work from day one.
“The work experience module also helped me get a step ahead since it's part of the degree, which is different in Australia, where work experience isn't incorporated into degrees, meaning students may not think about that sort of thing until they're ready to graduate.”
Click here to find out more about the many postgraduate courses available at GIS’ global campuses, including our Australian Campus in Melbourne.
