BCF’s coatings ambassador programme trains its 50th ambassador

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The British Coatings Federation has partnered with the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and Oil & Colour Chemists’ Association (OCCA) since 2019 to form a network of ambassadors from the coatings industry engaging with schools and universities across the UK. The trained cohort has now grown to over 50 ambassadors.

Coatings ambassadors from various businesses in the coatings supply chain are being trained and given materials to hold careers sessions at schools and universities. When delivering the course material, ambassadors will introduce the coatings industry, and share their career paths and the varied jobs and opportunities available within the sector. The coatings ambassador programme will play a significant role in BCF’s new careers strategy by utilising this team of industry representatives to attend careers events across the UK.

June’s workshop, run by Cogent Skills, hosted a diverse group of attendees from organisations including Jotun Paints, Safic Alcan UK, BASF, Grolman, Sherwin-Williams, Inx International, Nazdar, HMG Paints and AkzoNobel. This year’s event follows the success of the previous events over the last five years, with students describing the day as informative and fun.

 The workshop provided guidance on how to reach out to the younger generation, using activities, presentations and creative projects.

‘On behalf of OCCA, RSC and BCF, we would like to thank the companies and individuals who took part. Our network of coatings ambassadors is hugely important to educate the next generation on our industry, something which is a priority at BCF, and we are continuing to be more proactive in this area moving forward. We wish them every success in helping to develop the future workforce for the coatings sector,’ concluded BCF’s CEO, Tom Bowtell.