(Thomas Wilson – Apprentice at Bright Purple Resourcing)
Tuesday the 17th of July 2012 seemed like it was going to end like a normal day. But at Bright Purple we don’t do normal, we do EXCEPTIONAL.
Marielle, myself and my fellow apprentices were in a meeting discussing an expected visit the next day from Angela Constance, the Minister for Youth Employment, which in itself was quite a nerve-wracking prospect. However Amanda Jeffrey, Marketing and Social Media Manager at Bright Purple burst in to the meeting room out of breath and shaking like mad! Amanda announced to us all that Alex Salmond, our First Minister was actually coming to the Bright Purple office to meet us – now I was really nervous.
Hearing the news took a few minutes to settle in to be honest. When I got home my parents were over the moon, as it wasn’t just me who just received good news, my brother had been told that he would be joining the Livingston FC first team for a friendly match against Brechin City.
As I had to come in to the office at 08.15am I had to get myself up at 6.30am, which I can assure you is the earliest I have ever had to get up in my life! I arrived to work at 08.10am and to say I was drenched from the unrelenting Scottish rain is an understatement. It wasn’t a good start to the morning as I had to go and buy a new shirt! But saying that it was really important for me to look my best, I was meeting the First Minister and the Minister for Youth Employment and if it meant spending money to meet them, then that’s what I had to do.
When I walked down to the Bright Purple Academy I couldn’t believe my eyes, there was so much media downstairs it was really mind blowing.
When Angela and the First Minister arrived I was quite shocked, as I had seen Alex Salmond on television many times and in the news papers often and it was a really weird feeling to see him in person and in our offices. Sitting down and speaking to the First Minister and the Minster for Youth Employment about my experience of life as a Scottish youth is a sentence I thought I would never write in my lifetime. It was a very unusual feeling because as we were speaking the photographers were clicking away like mad on their cameras! I could tell that First Minister and Ms. Constance were both very interested in what we were saying and it was such a huge honour to have them here at Bright Purple.
It was an incredible feeling that such high profile people in our country were actually interested what Bright Purple were doing and therefore in me and my fellow apprentices. I think that we have definitely given them something to think about and it is all down to the fantastic Bright Purple team.
Without them I wouldn’t be here today. Not only did they take a chance on me in January 2012 and delivered so much to me over 6 months, but after I didn’t get the full time post, they gave me the opportunity to stay on for another month to help them with the Database Migration.
I can’t thank them enough for all of the opportunity they have put in my path.
