British Furniture and Joinery courses you'd recommend.

[custard]

West Dean should be on your list,

http://www.westdean.org.uk/CollegeChannel/index.aspx

Perfect for the overseas visitor because of its glorious location, decent rail and road links to Heathrow and Gatwick, easy access to places like Petworth (with Grinling Gibbons woodcarvings etc), the style and content of the West Dean short courses, and the fact that it's all delivered in an atmosphere dripping with centuries old hand crafted tradition.

 

[Mr T]

I'd make the trip if pudding were involved....

I could swap the mince pies for Christmas pudding!

I did the woodwind instrument making course at West Dean a few years ago. Great tuition and beautiful surroundings, if you can handle the stuffed lions in the corridors!

Chris

PS Are you playing the recorder Yetloh.

 

[Trafalgar]

Would love to treat myself to a trip over at Christmas. Maybe the stars will line up. I'll give you plenty of notice to have the pudding ready. I actually make a pretty decent Yorkshire pudding I've been told and by a lady from Yorkshire who goes to my church.

 

[Newbie_Neil]

Hi Chris,

I could swap the mince pies for Christmas pudding!

Please book me a place on the next course with Christmas pudding. :lol:

Thanks,
Neil

 

[Plumberpete]

Gary Dingle was the head of, I believe he's still there. We were issued a basic tool kit which contained everything we needed for the course so you didn't need to bring your own tools in. We made a small cabinet with various different dovetail, secret mitre joints etc, a console table with veneered top, an old fashioned style bow saw and a veneered lidded box (that's all I can remember, there were a few other smaller projects in between). I only did the first year, the second year the students design and build their own projects. And yes there was a well stocked library on campus, and a small collection of dedicated woodworking books in the workshop.

Yes Gary is still head of Furniture Making at COBC. Clive left at the end of the last academic year though (or was it the one before that?). I'm not sure they would be able to meet Dovetail Dave's criteria of short courses though as their courses are all at least a year long.

PlumberPete; Thats really usful info there regarding Clive you can only get that sort of info from people close to the college, staff and students really. I'm happy to hear Garys still there. Still wondering what C&G number they are offering....6217 or a 6219 etc. thats the kind of info that isn't often on websites, COBC for instance.

"Short /long courses", some would say an academic year of 38 weeks is short, someone over for 3 weeks would say its too long.
I'm asking on behalf of a wide demographic, from young to old, retired professionals to amateurs really. Some want a certificate, others want to enjoy themselves.

I've been asked to gather information and present it to them, so any info is better than none, from that they can make informed decisions. Knowing that a tool kit is supplied is great to know as they may only have room in a suitcase to return home with the item they've made whilst over here, Think Knockdown technology here....Note I didnt say "flatpack"

Thanks for your valuable insider information

I'm not in work today but I'll get you the info on furniture making courses tomorrow.

 

[Peter Sefton]

Gary Dingle is a nice guy he was a student at Bristol a couple of years before I was a student there in the 80's and we kept in touch when I was teaching in FE.

Back in the 80's Clive's father Bob was head of the restoration and polishing department, Clive was a social worker from memory. The Bristol college has a good history of furniture making courses, I understand now taught by just Gary rather than the 6 or 7 lecturer's that used to run the separate discipline's within the furniture trades.

I have not been following the most recent developments within FE but City and Guilds who were the bedrock of our trade had lost funding for furniture making courses a couple of years ago. The apprentices going through the system had dropped from over 5000 to under 1000 at the end of last year.

The number of state courses has dwindled but still some very dedicated teaching staff running courses. I know that a working group is currently pooling ideas on how to reshape the training structure within the furniture industry.

I believe that most furniture courses in FE are now run two days a week over a year or two, and very few run short courses or evening classes. Those colleges taking on foreign students will require tier four approval from the powers that be to conform to the tightened border controls.

Most if not all of the private schools in England will not have this approval (mine included) This means we can take foreign students but usually up to a maximum visa stay of 6 months. This does mean our short courses are attended by overseas students who benefit from using our fully kitted student tool kits and the intense structure that short courses offer.

The videos on my school website were all made by Louis a student who joined us from Singapore for six months and has come back for more short stays.

The UK is a great place for furniture making students with the experience that comes with such a rich history of furniture making. If I can help or you need any more information Dave just drop me a line.

Cheers Peter

 

[Trafalgar]

I'd make the trip if pudding were involved....

I could swap the mince pies for Christmas pudding!

I did the woodwind instrument making course at West Dean a few years ago. Great tuition and beautiful surroundings, if you can handle the stuffed lions in the corridors!

Chris

PS Are you playing the recorder Yetloh.

Now I have this image of Nigella Lawson making her Christmas pudding and I can't get it (them) out of my mind.

 

[matthewwh]

Don't for heaven's sake watch this then Charles...!

Dave, I'm working on a list of links - will get back to you shortly.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

=D> =D> =D>

 

[Trafalgar]

Oh my! Oh my. That's fantastic.

 

[gregmcateer]

I've not studied at Peter Sefton's. I have been to an open day there, courtesy of this very forum. The facility is really lovely and judging by some of the items produced, I expect the tuition is top notch, too.
HTH
Greg

 

[Roughcut]

Im just wondering if government funded technical colleges and the like are indeed the right avenues to be exploring due to finances involved?
As many years ago being at college I remember the fees for overseas students were probably triple or quadruple of what us natives were charged.

 

[Dovetaildave]

Excellent posts chaps...

Sorry Ive been unable to log in for a while, Its been a very busy week, BTEC IV'ing and G&C IV'ing visiting my humble department. BTEC IV'ing today has suggested I re-number every page in their folders and into his tracking sheets as that the format he likes, will take me 10 hours at least. Seems like a total waste of valuable time to me, but that's life I suppose.
Last minute panacking from my students that they will actually fail if they dont do the work.....you tell them all year then they raise your blood pressure with the last minute routine......

Peter; Packed with information; "I know that a working group is currently pooling ideas on how to reshape the training structure within the furniture industry." yes they (C&G) dont seem to have a grip on it, I've just been told that they will continue running the C&G 6217-06 L1, and the same for the L2 course that i'm yet to teach, that's also been extended for another two years I believe. I've been told by my technician this is often the situation. I do hope "the Working group" are going to be realistic with their recommendation, any idea whose on this group by the way?

"furniture courses in FE are now run two days a week over a year" Thats exactly our situation, we've closed all adult classes and also all evening classes. what a waste of a good resource. Two lecturers have accepted "Voluntary redundancy" I'm on my own now.

"colleges taking on foreign students will require tier four approval" exactly the info I need to pass on, will have to PM you on details if you don't mind. Thanks Peter.


gregmcateer; Yes my assumption also. I was playing the "Student testimonials" to my (16-18 year old) class the other day, as they tend to think they are so smart at that age. It really struck home to a few of them, they went on the surf the website in their own time.

Roughcut ; "As many years ago being at college I remember the fees for overseas students were probably triple or quadruple of what us natives were charged." Yes the same at londo met back in the 90's and 00's also. Most students in my classes were non europeans, seems like the colleges and universities made good profit.
If thats still the case, Private 6 month courses may be the only option, unless they are wealthy retired or sponsored by industry/employers to be trained here.

matthewwh "a list of links"...awsome


I really appreciate all the assistance you/we are pooling together here, maybe this can become some sort of reference / table (what course offer what qualification) for those wishing to enrol on a UK course, private or state....possibly near to their home areas as I found I had to get a huge student loan to cover this major expense whilst I studied full time ?

Keep it coming......

 

[Dovetaildave]

Oops nearly forgot:

Custard "West Dean should be on your list" yes most definitely, for all the reasons you state, Id love to go there.
I remember "Big Dave" telling us he had to pass an entry test, this also involved "squaring up length of hardwood, into a cube of wood using a plane", I presume a try square was also allowed. Now I think about it again maybe I should give it a try sometime. :wink:

 

[Dovetaildave]

Thanks to everyone who added to the group collective on courses you'd recommenced in the UK.

I did get information from Bristol college, not answering the question as to costs for the three courses I'd outlined, but did mention the immigration limitations that Peter Sefton touched on.

I'm due to fly out this coming Monday.
If you have any gems of information, now's the fashionable moment to come forward as I need time to incorporate it into a power-point presentation this Sunday.

It seems that there are not many places that have impressed members of our forum, I for one can say the two places I studied at have both closed down/changed name, I hope that isn't the case for all but 4 colleges in the UK.

As a Londoner; has anyone on here attended Hammersmith and Fulham college, or Hackney college, Stratford college?

I wonder if some of our newer members are happy to recommend their establishments, or PM me if its a negative comment, all info is welcome and relevant.


Regards,
Dave

 

[Dovetaildave]

After lots of Powerpointing and re pointing, and pointing again we finally did our presentation to our Chinese woodworking students in Taiwan.
It was a first for me to present and then have an interpreter translating and then co-presenting.
The turnout was a little disappointing, but then I considered the huge typhoon that had torn up Taipei the previous day then in retrospect it was surprising that anyone attended really. To be honest I didn't expect that it was going to go ahead till the phone call that morning.
The taxi driver was very skillfull weaving between fallen trees everywhere, all I could think was look at all that sub tropical green wood.

Toward the end of "the history of British furniture since 1550",and "Studying woodworking and courses in Britain".we had a Q&A session. A student suddently popped a Windsor chair he'd made in front of me and the focus of the talk took a very interesting direction for me as Im now dabbling into green woodworking .

雨過天青， David "英國家具史座談會" 熱鬧開講，十分感謝今天蒞臨的朋友。
當代木工藝術研習所 Chinese Woodworking's photo.

Hopefully some of these students will have the impetus to come to the UK and continue their journey of discovery, just as I intend to do for the next few days at least.
This morning at 5am, while it was still relatively coolish (30) I found some typhoon fallen trees at the end of our street :wink: and managed to saw a few 24" lengths of 10" dia, and a few sturdy (3"Dia ) straight branches of god-knows-what...but its really heavy. I foresee some rough edged bowls and a bodged stool for use in the garden.

Thanks again to all who helped us in this project, both in UK and Taiwan. =D>