A week at the purple palace through the eyes of a 15 year old

A week at the purple palace through the eyes of a 15 year old

Vaishnavi Ravinthan spent a work experience week with us, and shares her thoughts from her time here.

I came to do a week of work experience at learnpurple as a really nervous schoolgirl. I wondered what the company would look like and how everyone in it would be. I came to learnpurple as a girl who only knew about studies, my life and hobbies. Before my placement, I went on the website and tried to learn a bit of background information about this company, but since I have never worked, and don’t really know anything about people development – it just made me feel more confused.

After just a week, I realised that learnpurple helps employers to get the full potential out of their employees. They also try to bring out the best of the business itself. I learnt that learnpurple’s sister company is called talent toolbox. Talent toolbox is a piece of software that is an award winning online appraisal system. This helps to bring the manager and employee together so that they can set goals for the next year and so both the individual and company benefit.

After just one week I also leave learnpurple after learning about the working world and seeing that anyone can learn anything they want and has the potential to do whatever they want to do.

This company has really improved my confidence by giving me actual tasks to do, and not treating me like just a student. I think coming to learnpurple has shown me that running a company might not be as hard as it might seem, as long as the people who work there are happy to work as a team.

Everyone at learnpurple was so helpful and spent time with me individually giving me tips and pointers about a variety of subjects like: customer service, telephone skills, personal image and interview skills.

I would definitely recommend this company to other friends of my age to come and do work experience here - it helps life a lot for the future.

The main points I have learnt from coming to learnpurple for work experience and about learnpurple itself are:

- Never judge a book by its cover - be open

- Learning and development is useful at any age not just when you start a job

- learnpurple help people to enjoy their jobs

- By making the learning fun you can learn more

I really liked that at the end of my week I was given time to think about how to put what I learnt into action.

So that was my week at learnpurple. Thanks to everyone for your time, and hospitality… you guys really live the brand in the purple palace.

14 July 2010

Jane on 14 July 2010

For us it was very interesting having such a young team member with us - albeit for just one week. It's been a good reality check to explain the purple world to a 15 year old and more importantly to have had her completely honest comments. Our team enjoyed the opportunity to contribute and to experience a very different point of view. I can recommend taking a work experience student, whatever your business. It is important though to plan properly to think about how you can both maximise the experience. Have a formal plan to follow so that there is meaningful work to do - without any gaps for reading Heat magazine!

To the member of my team who encouraged Vaishnavi to write this blog and to publish it here, well done - that's what we're all about.

Sally Brand on 14 July 2010

It was a pleasure to have you Vaishnavi, and glad that you took away some useful experience. Good luck with the rest of your studies :-)