Partners

City & Guilds has supported the creation of a bespoke skills assessment and accreditation framework for VIY, working in conjunction with external skills assessor RM Training. This allows young people taking part to be fully assessed on site in working towards City & Guilds Entry Level 3 skills accreditations.

In 2024, we began working with The Considered Ask for the first time, a community of funders that exists to reduce social inequality in the UK. Their funding across two years will help us expand our further skills and employment support for our young learners following their VIY experience – helping more young people to become work-ready and supported into further training/employment.

The Dulux Let’s Colour programme has been painting a better future since 2009. Working together, Dulux and VIY are focused on transforming run-down community buildings, supporting young people to flourish and paving the way for an even better tomorrow. This includes enabling VIY learners to achieve a City & Guilds Painting & Decorating accreditation. See more on our partnership here.

The National Lottery Community Fund distributes over £600m a year to communities across the UK, raised by players of The National Lottery. Our funding through the National Lottery’s Community Fund is used to support our organisation to work with at risk young people to learn vocational trade and construction skills whilst helping to renovate/refurbish community buildings and facilities in urgent need of improvement.

We’re now into our fourth year of funding with Postcode Innovation Trust thanks to players of People’s Postcode Lottery. This funding will help us to undertake projects involving the retrofit of community buildings for improved energy-efficiency and reduced environmental impact, offering our learners the chance to gain new green construction skills and accreditations, as well as helping us to develop further skills and employment pathways for young people after their VIY experience.

VIY works with Sport England, supported by the National Lottery Community Fund and #iwill campaign, to open our offer to more grassroots sport clubs with facility needs. This includes driving and demonstrating sustainable volunteering outcomes on VIY projects alongside the youth training and venue improvement outcomes.

Toolstation is one of Britain’s fastest growing suppliers of tools, accessories and building supplies. They began partnering with VIY in 2021, funding the City & Guilds accreditations, skills training and mentoring of the young volunteers working on the projects they support. Toolstation wish to work with the local communities in which they live and work, whilst helping more young people learn DIY skills and consider a career in the construction and building industry.

Travis Perkins is the UK’s largest builders’ merchant. We’re helping fulfil their purpose to build better communities and enrich lives through their generous donation of building materials to VIY project sites, as well as through visits and volunteering from Travis Perkins colleagues. As well as providing progressions and apprenticeship opportunities for our VIY graduates, Travis Perkins Plc also acted as the Gateway Provider for the UK’s Kickstart scheme, through which we employed 11 young people on six month placements, and beyond. See more of the projects TP have lent a hand on here.