23 October 2024 | All News
Celebrating all we’ve achieved together with Dulux since 2020.
We’ve reached a significant milestone in our partnership with Dulux, celebrating the completion of our 200th project supported by the UK’s leading paint brand! For over four years, we’ve teamed up with Dulux, through their ‘Let’s Colour’ initiative, which brings communities together by transforming spaces with the power of paint. See our latest film celebrating what the partnership means to all of us.
The impact of our partnership has been extraordinary. Since July 2020, we’ve:
- transformed 200+ community spaces through the power of paint
- upskilled 3,000+ young people in construction skills including painting and decorating
- awarded 2,000+ Entry Level 3 City & Guilds accreditations (over 50% in Painting & Decorating)
- positively impacted 120,000+ lives across the UK – the local community who use and interact with these vital community venues
This work is more important than ever, as the construction industry faces a skills shortage and an ageing workforce, with 225,000 new construction workers needed by 2027.
To mark this achievement, Dulux’s Senior Leadership Group rolled up their sleeves and joined us at Winchmore Hill Youth Football Club in Enfield, North London, in October. Together over three weeks, 16 local young people, our professional mentors and our partner volunteers from both Dulux and Barclays created safe changing rooms for their growing male and female teams in football and cricket and gave the club a fresh, vibrant look with paint generously donated by Dulux. This project was our latest project funded in partnership with the Barclays Community Football Fund, match-funded by Sport England.
See more of our partnership so far here
What’s next for our partnership?
Our partnership with Dulux continues to go from strength to strength, helping even more NEET and at risk young people to learn trade skills including decorating and transforming more community spaces year on year. We’re looking forward to welcoming more mentors from the trade and from AkzoNobel onto our projects, sharing skills, experience and opportunities with the next generation.
We’re also looking forward to growing the ‘Decorators of the Future’ programme – helping young people positively progress into the industry, through further training, work or apprenticeship opportunities, working with Dulux’s customers and contractors to do so.
This year, we’re going international, delivering our first project in the Republic of Ireland in November 2024 in partnership with Dulux Ireland, transforming a community venue right next to their HQ in Dublin, using Dulux’s Colour of the Year 2025, True Joy™ to instil creative energy, optimism and pride in this important space for the community.
Peter Howard, Sustainability and CSR Lead at AkzoNobel, expressed his pride in the partnership, highlighting how our efforts are helping to fill the skills gap in the construction industry: “Reaching our 200th community project is a shining example of how collaboration can harness the power of paint and bring colour into people’s lives. As we celebrate this milestone, we’re looking forward to the future. The launch of AkzoNobel’s ‘Volunteering Through Partnership’ initiative will bring even more opportunities to support communities and train young people in valuable trade skills. We look forward to many more colleagues and customers volunteering with VIY.”