Nippon Paint Establishes DecoMaster Art Academy

Nowadays, walls are no longer painted in a single colour or with brush strokes in the same direction. In today's homes and workplaces, walls themselves serve as a decorative space... This has created a new skill area. Demand in this area is high, but the number of skilled workers is limited. Nippon Paint DecoMaster Art Academy was established to provide university students studying art, design, painting, ceramics and similar disciplines—those interested in patterns and colours and wanting to redirect their talents to a different career that offers greater income potential compared to standard paint application—with the opportunity to carry their art to a wholly different form of creativity on walls.

Nippon Paint, which believes that cities and living spaces need touches produced with subtlety and elegance, and which—with its 142-year history—assumes responsibility for the future of human resources that will create such touches, saw 1,200 applications in one week for the academy's first training round.

Two hundred candidates selected from among the applicants will be trained as decorative paint applicators—decoMasters—without paying any fee. During an intensive two-week hands-on training programme, they will comprehensively learn the intricacies of paint, how to create original textures and striking effects.

Noting that the academy—which is attended by associate degree, undergraduate students and graduates—also encourages female master craftspeople, Arzu Uludağ, Vice General Manager responsible for Marketing at Nippon Paint, made the following remarks on the matter:

"There are many special-effect products that add dimension to spaces. Consumers also show high interest in these products. However, it is difficult to find skilled workers to apply those products. We decided to establish an academy. Through this academy, we want to contribute to solving the skilled worker shortage in this area of the sector and also offer an opportunity to university students with talent who are unable to use it and who wish to create a business opportunity for themselves.

With Nippon Paint DecoMaster Art Academy, we aim to do exactly this. Beyond practical paint training, we also teach participants how to turn this into a career.

Because attending university does not immediately and by itself make you a career professional. Beyond contributing to the employment of university graduates, we envision a work model where female master craftspeople are trained and male and female craftspeople work together, side by side. For this reason, we have established a quota for female craftspeople at the academy. We have fully opened the academy's doors to women to provide equal opportunities in the sector.

In fact, in the first training round, 70 per cent of applications came from women. Of the 20-person quota in our first training programme, 16 participants are women. Sixty per cent of applicants are university graduates, while 30 per cent are university students.

Even during the candidate selection process, we witnessed their talent and how much joy they derive from making the spaces they touch more beautiful, and we were impressed by their artistic touches. We also appreciate their desire to turn all of this into an innovative career."

Nippon Paint aims to open doors for participants to start their own business through a project it has developed together with BUiyiİş, which was established by the Association of Boğaziçi University Graduates in Business. For this reason, the Nippon Paint DecoMaster Art Academy will also provide training in communication, social media use, financial literacy and entrepreneurship.

Candidates who successfully complete the training will be introduced to architectural offices and application firms operating in this field and will begin to carry out paint applications under the supervision of experts.

Nippon Paint DecoMaster Art Academy will provide training in different cities across Turkey. The first training programme to take place in Istanbul began at the Nippon Paint factory in Gebze. For the training sessions, which will be held every weekday for two weeks, shuttle service is also provided to participants.

The dates of subsequent training rounds and the cities in which training will take place will be shared with programme applicants in November. The academy aims to train 200 people—students or graduates of art, design, painting and similar disciplines—in groups of 20 each by the end of 2024.