Bright Ideas Case Study

Bright Ideas is a vibrant community based business that is passionate about working with local people to effect change and improvement in their communities. They seek to improve the quality and access to services for local people through cultural brokerage and community engagement and involvement. Bright Ideas specialise in research, training and development, devising campaigns and information materials, hosting vibrant events, training trainers and encouraging local people to be involved through volunteering.

Lisa Robinson, Director at Bright Ideas says that they became involved with Future Jobs Fund because it met the needs of their organisation well. “Bright Ideas does a lot of work for public funds– therefore there is a need to ensure good value for money. Future Jobs Fund seemed an ideal way to offer services with very little risk and expenditure – but with maximum benefit to the local community.”

Lisa says “FJF is a good scheme – however it would be better to fund employment for longer.  The young people are just getting in to the job at six months and we have to let them go.”  Lisa feels that the most positive thing about FJF is seeing the change within the young people involved – “particularly the huge increase in confidence.”

Lisa’s advice to young people looking for employment in these challenging times is to “go and volunteer your time doing something that is meaningful to you”.  Lisa believes that volunteering is a good opportunity to gain experience and will be great for your CV.  “Rather than have a gap on your CV – fill it with volunteering. Don’t see it as working for free; see it as gaining free training.”

James Gallivan and Rebekah Gough were both FJF employees at Bright who finished their six months on the project and continued to volunteer with Bright Ideas.

James Gallivan

James had been claiming JSA for six months before getting the job of Volunteers Coordinator at Bright Ideas.  Before that he had worked as a trainee graphic designer for three months straight after leaving college. James was hoping to get a design job but didn’t mind looking for work in a different field.

James feels that this experience has opened his mind to other jobs. “I wasn’t confident enough to do tasks before.” James thinks FJF was a good scheme, “I had a really good experience and it has provided me with an opportunity to go into a different field. There will be lots to put on my CV. FJF was really good and has given me a taste for working life.”

Rebekah Gough

Rebekah had been claiming JSA after leaving university and was looking for a media related job.  She worked at Bright Ideas as an Events and Media coordinator. Rebekah initially thought the job would be quite basic “data entry on the computer,” however it turned out to be much more than that.

Rebekah says “when I finished Uni, it was so hard to get a job. Therefore it was nice to have a scheme just for young people so only we could apply for the jobs. It would have been good if it was longer than six months.” Rebekah says it’s hard to say what the best thing of working at Bright Ideas has been as “there have been loads. Probably all the training; learning on the job, the NVQ and personal development courses”.

Both James and Rebekah worked towards an NVQ in Business Administration while at Bright Ideas. Rebekah is beginning a temporary contract with Bright Ideas to continue as the Events and Media Coordinator. The Director of Bright Ideas is seeking funding and hopes to be able to employ both Rebekah and James in the future.