A University of Worcester Master’s student has secured a coveted role at Bristol City Women as a Performance Analyst, the second club to hire her before she has even officially graduated.
Beca Jones, who completed the MSc Sport Applied Performance Analysis course at Worcester, is set to join the Barclays Women’s Championship side after a rapid rise through the industry. She’ll graduate at Worcester Cathedral this month.
She undertook her Master’s alongside a placement at Southampton FC, balancing evening lectures with full-time work. “It was a good balance,” she said. “You’re still a student and still learning the theory, but you’re also working all day in football, gaining that practical experience. It worked really well for me.”
Although she lived and worked in the south of England during her course, Beca chose the University of Worcester for its course structure and strong reputation among analysts already in the industry.
“I’d heard good things,” she said. “The evening lectures meant I wasn’t missing any days of work, and I knew I’d learn more from being in a placement environment, so having a Master’s I could do alongside full-time football really appealed. A few people in the industry recommended Worcester to me, and that sealed the deal for me.”
As part of her course, Beca completed a work-based project, using it as an opportunity to analyse and improve crossing effectiveness at Southampton.
“I noticed we could have been more effective in the final third with our crossing,” she said. “My project was to research it, analyse our data, and feed it back into my placement. That link between the course and the club was really useful.”
After securing a role at Portsmouth FC, Beca got an offer from Bristol City, and the move felt right for her.
“I’m nervous, but excited,” she said. “It’ll be a different environment for me, one with a different type of pressure; I’ll be working with different people and there will be very high-performance standards. I’ll be the Second Analyst, so I’m looking forward toto having the license to become a sponge again, while also applying everything that I’ve already learnt at Southampton and Portsmouth.
Dr John Francis, Senior Lecturer in Performance Analysis, said: “Watching Beca develop as an analyst throughout her Master’s has been fantastic. She fully embraced the applied nature of the course, and her hard work and professionalism have been rightly rewarded with another role in the professional game.”
He continued: “It has been rewarding for us to see Beca join a growing group of Worcester analysts progressing into roles across the professional game. Our graduates are now working throughout the men’s and women’s football pyramid around the world, including positions at Southampton, Kidderminster Harriers, York City, Bristol City Women, Southend United, Sheffield Wednesday, Crystal Palace, and even the Tampa Bay Rowdies.”
Dr Francis added: “This breadth of opportunity reflects both the talent of our students, and the strong reputation they continue to build within the industry.”
To read more about the MSc Applied Sports Performance Analysis, visit the University of Worcester website.
Beca and her classmates on their graduation day:
