Beth Lammas

Digital Marketing Student Confident for a Freelance Future after Springboard Placement

Beth Lammas, who has just finished the final year of her Digital Marketing course, is on track for a varied and rewarding career after a placement experience that helped her build skills and confidence.

Beth gained her placement through the University of Worcester’s Springboard programme, which matches talented business and computing students with short-term roles and experiences in and around the West Midlands.

For Beth, that meant finding the right opportunity with Worcester-based recruitment specialists, Straight Line Group.

“I spoke to the Business School’s careers and employability team who had facilitated this placement. I asked about what it would entail and they encouraged me to go for it. They really got me excited about the placement and the firm I would be working with, and although it was daunting, they honestly made me feel like it was something I could do.”

Rather than simply observing, Beth was given the chance to make a real contribution to the business from the outset, something she says made all the difference.

“I’ve been doing everything,” she said. “From social media to email marketing, website optimisation and more. Being here has really let me apply my knowledge from university into a real-world context and I’ve been able to look back at the outcomes of it all. It has really helped me grow.”

Beth added: “From day one, I was given responsibility. I wasn’t just sitting and watching, I was actually doing the role. Some might think that on placement you just shadow, but this isn’t like that, you get stuck in straight away.”

That hands-on experience not only built her technical skills but also gave her confidence in her own abilities.

“It’s been really rewarding,” Beth said. “You can go into an environment like this with a bit of imposter syndrome, and think, ‘can I actually do this?’, and then you soon realise that you can.”

Because her placement was closely aligned to her course, Beth found her academic learning and real-world work reinforced each other, something she believes impacted her final grades.

She said: “Seeing real results helped me a lot, and doing that placement definitely helped me get my first-class degree.”

Daniel Sekhon of Straight-Line Group said Beth’s contribution quickly made a difference to the business.

“It’s not just marketing for the sake of it,” he said. “The campaigns Beth’s worked on have brought in real business for us.”

The Springboard Programme has also transformed how she sees her future career.

She said; “The placement made me look at my career differently. I’m now thinking about freelance, agency work, or working with multiple clients now, because I’ve learned skills like networking. That was scary at first, but I’m so much more confident to put myself out there.”

The true strength of the Springboard programme is that it connects students with the right opportunity for them by working a network of employers to create meaningful opportunities.

“The University didn’t just give me a list of placements,” said Beth. “They matched me to the perfect placement to help me grow.”

Daniel Sekhon added: “There’s real talent at Worcester. Working with the University has shown us how valuable these opportunities can be, and that students like Beth can genuinely make an impact.”