Our guest this week is Stacie Woolsey, the founder of Make Your Own Masters – an alternative post-graduate learning experiment which she began several years ago to address the lack of access and diversity within the creative industries as well as higher education.
It was something she began just for herself in 2017, so she was able to gain the skills, experience and contacts she felt she needed to progress in her career – but without having to study for a Masters or get into any further debt. The effort certainly paid off. Today, she calls herself an Anthropological Future Designer and has worked with some of the world's leading brands and institutions including Somerset House, BBC, and Science Gallery London to deliver projects that she describes as "future-facing and always socially focused".
She's also an artist in residence at Selfridges and a visiting lecturer at Kingston School of Art as well as a freelance design researcher. Stacie is usually based in London but, due to the pandemic, is currently back home in Doncaster where she grew up.
In this episode, we discuss the problems with higher education and why things might need to change. We talk of Doncaster, moving to the big city, and how a strong family and network back home helped her to have confidence and spot opportunities. We also chat about unusual job titles and the power of shaping our own careers however we want. So if you like a rebel with a cause, and you're looking to progress in your own life and work, Stacie is just the inspiration you need this Monday morning.
