Home improvement retailer plans to bring lost skills back to hundreds of schools with its Job Done! Programme.
The scheme, which will be linked to the schools curriculum, is aimed at 11 to 14 year olds and has been designed in conjunction with school teachers, students and parents.

The first instalment is a health and safety unit, followed by the rest of the programme, which is divided into four units - Decorate It, Build It, Fix It and Grow It.

The units will involve practical tasks such as how to prepare and paint a wall, how to hang a picture or mirror, how to put up a shelf and how to wire a plug and change a fuse.

B&Q and Kingfisher UK ceo Euan Sutherland explained: "We recently carried out research that said the younger generation wished they could learn more from the 50 plus generation about the old fashioned way of keeping home and DIY... The new programme is designed to help children feel more confident about developing their DIY skills at the same time as adding t their educational record of achievement."

B&Q's Cooke & Lewis kitchen range also bagged the Gold Award in the Corporate Brand Identity, Design and Implementation category at the DBA Design Effectiveness Awards.

Meanwhile, Kingfisher ceo and B&Q chairman Ian Cheshire was reported to have launched an attack on the government's £6m climate change campaign, dubbing the latest phase in the campaign as "too abstract and in the negative finger-wagging territory".

He added that most people in B&Q's focus groups "don't know what you're talking about when you ask them about carbon footprints". According to a report in Marketing Magazine, the Advertising Standards Authority is currently investigating the Act on CO2 campaign after more than 350 complaints poured in, claiming it was either misleading or inappropriate for children.