Starting out

[Jos]

Hi
Looking to changing my career, after working in finance for the last three years i have decided that i would like to change and retrain to become a joiner. Which i must add was my original plan from leaving school. I do have my Art and Design GCSE and an A level in Design. I also have work experience with a antique and furniture restoration company.
Unsure how to start out my new career, i am looking for some advice. I like the idea of an apprenticeship allowing me to work and attend college at the same time. I am finding it hard to find a good company in my area which is looking for an apprentice. My other thought is to go back to college / university to study. Unsure of a recommended course which would be well recognised within the trade, i am after some advice.

Also like to add that i am a 24 year old male living in Gloucestershire.

Below is one of the courses which i have been looking at.

http://www.ocvc.ac.uk/rycotewood-furniture-centre

All help much appreciated. Thanks Joss

 

[Aled Dafis]

Hi
Looking to changing my career, after working in finance for the last three years i have decided that i would like to change and retrain to become a joiner. Which i must add was my original plan from leaving school. I do have my Art and Design GCSE and an A level in Design. I also have work experience with a antique and furniture restoration company.
Unsure how to start out my new career, i am looking for some advice. I like the idea of an apprenticeship allowing me to work and attend college at the same time. I am finding it hard to find a good company in my area which is looking for an apprentice. My other thought is to go back to college / university to study. Unsure of a recommended course which would be well recognised within the trade, i am after some advice.

Also like to add that i am a 24 year old male living in Gloucestershire.

Below is one of the courses which i have been looking at.

http://www.ocvc.ac.uk/rycotewood-furniture-centre

All help much appreciated. Thanks Joss

Joss

Welcome to the forum, I've attached your post, as your link was caught by the Spam Trap, just a few more posts and you'll be free to link as you wish.

Unfortunately I'm in the wrong part of the country to be of any real help, but I know that Rycotewood have a really good name and it's really worth you contacting them.

All the best.

Aled

 

[OPJ]

Hi Joss and welcome to the forum.

I'm a little confused as you say you would like to train as a 'Joiner' (2nd Fix or Bench Joinery?) but, the courses you are looking at would educate in the making of fine furniture. Yes, they're both woodwork but, believe me, there's quite a difference between the two!

Getting an Apprenticeship isn't going to be easy, given the current situation with the economy and how many businesses in the construction industry have gone/are going bust...

Have you looked at Gloucestershire College? They have several Carpentry & Joinery courses which should provide you with all the skills you're going to need. You won't need to be employed or have an apprenticeship unless you want to go for an NVQ, where you have work-based recorder who records all your site work away from college. If you can get an apprenticeship then, of course, you'll be better off for it. What I'm trying to say is that you can still get a recognised qualification and certificate without the relevant employment (I know because I have done this). :wink: You may be too late to enrol for this year but, you could always attend an open day later and see for yourself.

Hope this helps and best of luck with whatever you choose to do next!

 

[FatFreddysCat]

'Joiner' (2nd Fix or Bench Joinery?)

Sorry to be picky, but don't you mean Site or Bench (Joiners)? A Site Carpenter or Joiner is normally trained for the full range of work, not just for 2nd fix (which may or may not be a later specialisation). On a construction site you are generally required to be able to undertake 1st fix (e.g. structural work, roofing, etc), 2nd fix (e.g. door hanging, installation of architraves, skirtings, etc) and finishing, sometimes called "3rd fix" (e.g. installing mirrors, shelves, signage, etc after the main works have been done). These days there are a couple of other specialities which are covered in the main C&G Carpentry & Joinery course, namely shuttering and roofing (especially traditional cut roofing) but which are becoming sub-trades in their own right.

To the OP. If you are being serious I'd recommend considering going to college to gain a City & Guilds qualification. If you can find an employer willing to take you on to work as a trainee and allow you time off for training then that would be even better as you will gain practical skills to back up your college work. Experience-derived NVQs tend to be quite narrowly focused and often leave huge swathes of what many employers regard as essential knowledge out.

 

[big soft moose]

To the OP. If you are being serious I'd recommend considering going to college to gain a City & Guilds qualification. If you can find an employer willing to take you on to work as a trainee and allow you time off for training then that would be even better as you will gain practical skills to back up your college work. Experience-derived NVQs tend to be quite narrowly focused and often leave huge swathes of what many employers regard as essential knowledge out.

very true , in my line of work (countryside) you often here the NVQ refered to as "not very qualified" - now of course not ever course is poor and i'm not knocking the skills of those that have undertaken them, but they dont have a great rep with employers. so as FFC says a C&G may be a better bet.

also I'd second ollys advice about going to glos college - theres nothing wrong with ryecotewood , but you dont want to be doing gloucester to oxford everyday , particularly not on an apprentice wage ( I speak from experience as i do swindon to oxford 3 times a week and it takes a big bite out of my (rather higher than 'prentice) salary

 

[PAC1]

Jos

In the current market jobs are likely to be thin on the ground. Keep looking but have a plan B ie full time college university. That is what I did in 1982. I went to college and obtained some qualifications so that when the upturn came I was well placed.

College Uni is starting very soon so if you mean this year you better contact them quickly. There are several that do degrees in furniture making/design as well as the private course offered by some well known makers. search on line or have a look at the back of Furniture & Cabinetmaking

good luck!

 

[jhwbigley]

To the OP. If you are being serious I'd recommend considering going to college to gain a City & Guilds qualification. If you can find an employer willing to take you on to work as a trainee and allow you time off for training then that would be even better as you will gain practical skills to back up your college work. Experience-derived NVQs tend to be quite narrowly focused and often leave huge swathes of what many employers regard as essential knowledge out.

very true , in my line of work (countryside) you often here the NVQ refereed to as "not very qualified" - now of course not ever course is poor and i'm not knocking the skills of those that have undertaken them, but they dont have a great rep with employers. so as FFC says a C&G may be a better

When my dad worked for a agricultural college they refereed to NDA as "never done any" .

as said City & Guilds much more sort after.

If your thinking about a uni course then i think you might have to leave it a year, I start in just over a week :shock:


John-Henry

 

[FatFreddysCat]

I notice that a number of people are talking about degrees as opposed to vocational qualifications. If the intention is to go into craft furniture making, furniture manufacturing (what little there is left of it) or the like then a degree would potentially be useful, however, for joinery work the more normal path is to do C&G followed by appropriate extra qualifications if moving into management later on. I'm sure there must be guys out there with degrees in joinery, it's just that I've never met one.

 

[jjc_uk]

When my dad worked for a agricultural college they refereed to NDA as "never done any" .

as said City & Guilds much more sort after.

If your thinking about a uni course then i think you might have to leave it a year, I start in just over a week :shock:


John-Henry

whats a NDA John-Henry , don't think I have heard of that one

 

[Jos]

Thanks for the warm welcome.

"To the OP. If you are being serious I'd recommend considering going to college to gain a City & Guilds qualification. If you can find an employer willing to take you on to work as a trainee and allow you time off for training then that would be even better as you will gain practical skills to back up your college work. Experience-derived NVQs tend to be quite narrowly focused and often leave huge swathes of what many employers regard as essential knowledge out".

After much thought i am confident that i want to train to become a joiner, i think it is the more practical option for me. This sounds like my best option if i can find someone wiling to take me on. My main problem is that i can't find a local college which offers a City and Guilds.

 

[OPJ]

My main problem is that i can't find a local college which offers a City and Guilds.

I'd be surprised if Gloucestershire College couldn't offer you a recognised qualification without recorded work experience. Don't get hung up on the "City & Guilds" tag. Things have changed over the years and they are now simply the awarding body of 'Construction Awards' (Foundation, Intermediate, Advanced) or similar. That's what I achieved at City of Bristol college.

 

[Jos]

They do offer recognized qualifications. I was just looking at City and Guilds because it has been recommended. So many different views and advice it is hard to know what is best. Was thinking of visiting a careers advisor, but from past experience i don't ever have much luck.

 

[Jos]

Have gone through the whole of the Yellow Pages and can't find any positions. Is the market really that quiet at the moment?

 

[Night Train]

Hi Jos,

If it is definately joinery you want to do and not fine furniture then I am very surprised that you can't find a college course.

I teach furniture, and occasionally carpentry and joinery as Burnley College and at this time of the year I get regular calls from teaching agencies offering me full time C&J teaching. I have to turn them down as I am quite happy with part time furniture teaching and won't give it up for full time C&J.

Our C&J classes are very full year on year as are a lot of the local tech colleges with all the building trades.

Getting the paid element of your chosen career path may be more difficult as potential employers may be being cautious about taking on staff given the financial climate.
You may have to rely on word of mouth via friends, relatives and your current work. Someone may have a friend or relative who may give you a chance given that you are without qualification or experience.

Another thing to do could be to stay at your current work and do an evening class if you can find one. Maybe even a furniture restoration course if you can find nothing else.

I was similarly fed up of flying a desk having been in Local Authority Urban Renew. I booked all my leave and walked out of my job one day and gathered my DIY tools together and went door knocking looking for carpentry work from friends and neighbours.
After a few months I decided I liked working in wood and enrolled on a C&J course at Salford College. Then I heard about a furniture course at Burnley and enrolled on the Level 1 C&G. In the first week I was promoted up to HND and I was teaching electrical during my second year at the college and furniture as soon as I finished the course.
Here I am with a website, a workshop, regular teaching and a small handful of good clients.

What ever you find and choose I wish you the best of luck with it.
Rycotewood is well recommended.