Kent Blaxill is proud to support City College Norwich with its new Painting and Decorating Courses.

The merchant is supporting Level 1 this year, and will continue that support through Levels 2 and 3.

A recent Careers Event invited local schools from a wide radius around Norwich to discover the new courses available for students aged 16-19, as well as mature students through even-ing classes. Territory Manager for Norfolk and Suffolk, Barry Church, pioneered the project and presented at the recent Painting and Decorating Careers Event to set out the course ob-jectives.

Church said: ‘The Careers Event was well-received, and Kent Blaxill are proud to support City College Norwich. Kent Blaxill has been established for over 180 years and these new students are our life-blood in order that we continued that long tradition.

“I previously worked for Dulux Paints and saw their education initiatives, so I was keen that Kent Blaxill worked closely with schools and colleges to help bring through the next genera-tion of quality decorators. The courses also aim at encouraging more young women to start a career in this industry and the Careers Event reflected that.’

“Students will have access to new technology, for example, spray paint application as well as surface preparation such as dustless extraction, all part of the developing face of our in-dustry.

“By comparison, the course will also support historic painting techniques such as marbling and graining. City College Norwich works closely with the broad’s authorities who were also in attendance at the Careers Event, promoting skills such as windmill restoration, which is an area which utilises all the skill sets of the College’s construction element.

Managing Director Simon Blaxill added: ‘Kent Blaxill is pleased to help create a brand-neutral initiative within the College where students can trial a variety of quality products, allowing them to discover which products work best for them, and we hope in time they will become our new generation of discerning decorators.”