Community

In early 2025, Pippa received a call from her brother Jon about the awful state of a Multi-use Games Area (MUGA) in Bridgwater that they both used growing up in the local area. The YMCA George Williams Centre in Dulverton had such a positive impact in their life, influencing their personal journeys through life and turning them into the people they are today. It offered people, facilities, and opportunities for connection, learning, and travel.

Passionate to improve it for others to have the same transformational experience, Centre Manager Jon asked Pippa for help. Using long term, trusted connections through Pipster Solutions, Pippa asked highways / civil engineering contacts to help with donations of material and services to rejuvenate the facility as a social value initiative, restoring the sports area for the local community to use again. An amazing team came together: RK Bell Group, Tripod Crest Planing Ltd, Holcim, Connor Construction (South West) Ltd, Wilson and Scott (Highways) Ltd. As a team they conducted initial surveys, carried out planing, re-surfacing, donated materials, and provided white lining services.

In summer 2026 it was completed and officially opened by Sir Ashley Fox MP who said “This will provide a fantastic new facility for young people in Bridgwater, and I’m absolutely delighted to the YMCA for bringing together a group of generous donors and sponsors who have enabled this project to go ahead”. Since opening, it has been regularly used by those staying at local YMCA accommodation, Disability Cricket, Somerset Cricket Foundation, Little Crickets Nursery, and for local netball, tennis and five aside football matches.

The highways and civil engineering industry is very special indeed – Pippa is very proud to be part of this industry and is truly grateful to all of her connections for collaborating to get this done. It is a brilliant example of what can be achieved when people come together.

Pipster Solutions selects a charity to support each year. In 2026, we are proud to be supporting Roxies Animal Rescue, a small, volunteer-run not-for-profit based in Leicestershire.

Roxies rescues and rehomes abandoned or vulnerable animals, primarily cats, relying entirely on donations, foster carers and volunteers to continue its work. The organisation is currently run by a small team of dedicated volunteers, working to provide safe, temporary homes and help animals find permanent placements.

Following an initial conversation with the Roxies team, we are beginning to explore how we can best support the rescue over the course of the year. As a small organisation with limited resources, support could range from digital and communications assistance through to fundraising and practical help, depending on where we can add the most value.

Team Pipster will be working together to identify where our skills and experience can make a meaningful difference, with plans to develop this support throughout 2026.

In May, Jo Brassington delivered a careers workshop for Avanti Schools Trust at Avanti Park in Frome working with two Year 7 classes (aged 11–12) as part of their career development programme. As a linked Enterprise Advisor, she has been supporting the school alongside Deputy Principal Brendan Bayew for the past two years — this was the second time she had introduced students to bidding as a career and an intentional career choice when leaving education.

Jo split the students into teams, each acting as a company competing for a contract. They had to build a bid based on three core public sector criteria: ✅ Price ✅ Quality ✅ Social Value, and pitch against each other to win. What stood out most was how quickly they grasped the fundamentals that we deal with every day as bid professionals:

☑️ The importance of understanding the client and their priorities

☑️ How aligning solutions drives higher scoring bids

☑️ The balance between cost and value

☑️ The role of research and insight in shaping a compelling response

For many, this was their first exposure to the world of bidding. It isn’t a career that young people typically know about, so sessions like this are a great way to showcase the skills needed (strategising, storytelling, commercial thinking and collaborating) and how they can look at this industry as a potential training and career route.

In 2021, Pipster launched its first internship focused on human resources, marketing and business development. Three interns were hired over the summer to give them valuable work experience following their university degrees, and to help Pipster create a digital employee handbook, a marketing plan and business processes.

One intern (Sajia) later became interested in the bidding profession and secured a Bid Coordinator role at Pipster taking on the Bid and Proposal Coordinator Apprenticeship and is now a flourishing Bid Writer.

Following the success of this initial internship, Sajia decided that she would like to create and lead a specific intern programme to attract and promote the bidding career, this is an industry first programme and proudly launched during 2025 as the Pipster Bid Writer Insight Programme. Insight promotes bidding as a conscious career choice, aimed at young people new to the profession, those uncertain about what it involves and those considering an industry apprenticeship.

During the pandemic, Pippa helped to develop a new bidding community initiative, Thursday Throng. At a time when working from home was the norm, and feelings of isolation were increased, this weekly online lunch hour meet up provided much needed company, conversation and relief amongst bidding professionals.

Over the years, it has provided a safe space, friendship, humour and an understanding of the life of bid professionals, bringing people together and discussing relevant work and non-work related topics. In 2024 the first in-person Thursday Throng meet up was organised in Bath, a successful social gathering which we hope to replicate annually.

In addition, Pippa also created and ran BidBites – a monthly online session focused on niche bidding topics, where experience and opinions were shared with industry peers to create informative articles. They were posted on LinkedIn to share the knowledge within the bidding community. Topics covered social value, portals, public procurement notices, storyboarding, AI, bidding ethics and time management.

Pippa and Jo have signed up to become Enterprise Advisors through the Somerset Careers Hub and the Careers & Enterprise Company.

Pippa has been paired with Oakfield Middle School in Frome and Jo has been paired with Avanti Park School in Frome to share their knowledge and experience with teachers and students about entry level bidding positions, future job roles in the bidding sector, skills needed, career pathways, linked school subjects, and available apprenticeships.

Pippa and Jo are passionate to use these opportunities to promote bidding as an intentional career path.