Foundation Trainee Challenge: The Willmott Dixon Foundation Trainee Challenge gives a handful of our final year trainees the opportunity to lead a project from conception to completion.

The team from Interiors worked with social enterprise, Clarity & Co. to improve employment opportunities for people with sight issues and raised awareness amongst our people of how having a disability can lead to social exclusion.

The challenge focused on supporting Clarity & Co., a social enterprise that produces eco-ethical bath and beauty products and creates employment opportunities for people with disabilities, including those with sight issues.

With a team of our people and supply chain partners, the team organised a refurbishment of Clarity & Co.’s factory. They renovated meeting rooms, installed a new ramp and disabled access points to the canteen. They also installed a new oven and counter top cookers in the canteen, which are being used by Clarity’s employees for cooking classes.

Nigel Lewis, CEO, Clarity & Co. said:

‘‘Willmott Dixon Interiors’ Trainee Challenge is a huge opportunity for Clarity & Co. We’ve got a big factory in East London in need of a facelift. When you are busy growing a social enterprise and trying to put everything you can into employing people with disabilities, some things go further down the list."

Making the most of their colleagues’ skills, Clarity & Co. were invited to join Interiors’ Farringdon Friday Customer networking event, following it up with a promotional campaign for the social enterprise, to help raise awareness and attract new business.

They also hosted a range of events to help his colleagues understand how difficult it can be to live with a visual impairment. Including a fair, where attendees had an opportunity to experience visual disability through simulation glasses, eye covers and visual restrictors. The Interiors team even had a go at playing football wearing the restrictors.

The team continue to work with Clarity & Co., helping them to develop a new product range aimed specifically at the construction sector.

Camilla Marcus-Dew, head of sustainability, Clarity & Co. said:

“We are so pleased that Willmott Dixon Interiors have stepped up to the challenge of helping us create a factory and office environment, ready for our growth.’’

In 2018, there were approximately 360,000 registered blind and partially-sighted people of working age in the UK. However, they were significantly less likely to be in paid employment than the general population, or other disabled people. 83% of Interiors people are now more informed of the challenges visually impaired people face.