(By Andrew Muirhead, CEO of Inspiring Scotland)
On Thursday 12th July I returned to the Inspiring Scotland office and I felt distinictevely 
bright purple.
I had just attended the Bright Purple Academy’s first ever graduation ceremony for their group of 6 Bright Futures Apprentices and met their Graduates; a group of motivated, enthusiastic, committed, professional, engaged and inspirational young people – I was hugely impressed.
Like Bright Purple’s CEO Nick Price, and the rest of his team, I’m passionate about tackling some of the countries toughest social issues in a strategic and collaborative way. The Youth unemployment in this country is frightening. But what is even more scary is the outlook for the next generations if we don’t do anything.
At Inspiring Scotland we’ve invested over £20 million in a fund which has supported over 12,000 young people to be in the best possible place to secure a job, place in education or training. To do this we’ve formed a unique partnership across the private, public and not-for-profit sector. One sector can’t solve this issue on it’s own, we need everyone pulling together in the same direction and only then will we begin to make a significant and sustained difference.
Congratulations to the Academy’s Graduates and thank you to Bright Purple for allowing me to share in the experience.
Nick Price, Bright Purple’s CEO commented: “ the work that Andrew Muirhead and the team of dedicated people at Inspiring Scotland can’t be underestimnated and the organisation makes a significant difference to young lives across Scotland on a daily basis.”
He went on to say “We were delighted when Andrew came to Bright Purple’s Academy to meet and talk with the apprentices, who at that time were far greener than they are today and he delivered an inspirational session with them, but that’s what we expected because he’s an inspirational man and we thank him for dedicating his time to our young people, who benefited greatly from it.”
You can see more about Inspiring Scotland and the wonderful work they do here at – http://www.inspiringscotland.org.uk/
