Apprenticeships

[Noho12C]

I'm in a similar position (although older than you judging from your image) I am a C&G 236 (parts I and II) qualified electrician and have never completed an apprenticeship. I never got into this line of work until I was 24 (by which time apprenticeships were pretty much non-existent) I've spent most of my time as a sparks working on commercial/industrial installations. I spent 5yrs at university studying computer science and then spent 5 years in IT and now I can't even bring myself to write a single line of code. I am now teaching myself to make furniture and carve wood. I don't have a mortgage and I have a 9m x 5m workshop at the bottom of my garden and I spend most waking hours in there 'doing stuff' (that's what I tell my wife) and I just love it. It seems to me that the only options to upskill in the furniture making arena is to sign up for a course with the well established furniture makers i.e David Savage, Marc Fish, David Charlesworth, Peter Sefton et-al - they all run various courses over different durations. They are however, expensive (around £18k for a year plus accommodation and travel). It's not an apprenticeship per-se, but you do get a certificate. These people are highly thought of in their field and I think having studied under their tutelage carries a lot of weight when applying for positions within the industry.

I, like you am not interested in domestic/construction carpentry and would dearly love to join an organisation, but I'm 60 next year and I think my ship has sailed ( I would swap it all for a career making furniture in a heartbeat). So I'll just keep teaching myself, watching loads of Youtube stuff and ask questions - you never know - there might be some lunatic out there who needs an older worker still willing to work hard and learn new skills.

Good Luck with your quest
Dno (www.andonart.com)

Great work with the stained glass projects ! do you make the stained glass yourself ? And what about the furniture coming with it ? The snowdrop lamp and the frame mirror look very good (though the picture doesnt do it justice !). I dont think you really need an internship !
Really like the door panels too !

 

[Mark Karacsonyi]

I got my CofG in the mid 90’s after serving 12 years in the Royal Marines.

Suppose it helps when your father is a joiner and you spent too many hours in the shop as a kid.

 

[jim1950]

Started my apprenticeship in Carpentry and Joining Aug 1965, left school at 14 with reading and spelling problems, the school was not interested but I was very good at all the practical lessons and in-fact came first that year in woodwork, metalwork, technical drawing, art, and was on 3 sports teams also first at R.E. ? (still not sure why).
The greatest thing was starting Brixton school of building to be told we don't care if you can spell or not, we don't care if you can spell Lintel or not but we do care that you know what it is and the correct way to use it, 5years later left with City and Guilds ordinary level and advanced level both passed with credits.
So I think an apprenticeship is a great thing and companies should have never been let bring in E.U. tradesmen before training our our kids.

 

[Doug71]

I learnt my trade (joinery) working in the family business, I went to college one day a week as I wanted a qualification but found it a real waste of time and money.

I was constantly keeping the tutor right on stuff, he had obviously never done much joinery, I remember one particular time when we had to make a mini staircase, he was getting the geometry of it all wrong and I was practically running the class

Thing was most of the kids there never actually did any proper joinery, they just worked in some type of factory, for example just fitting doors on Portakabins all day and had no interest in learning more, for them it was just a day off work.

Going back years I think trade apprenticeships were 5 years before you were considered qualified to do the job.

 

[jim1950]

I learnt my trade (joinery) working in the family business, I went to college one day a week as I wanted a qualification but found it a real waste of time and money.

I was constantly keeping the tutor right on stuff, he had obviously never done much joinery, I remember one particular time when we had to make a mini staircase, he was getting the geometry of it all wrong and I was practically running the class

Thing was most of the kids there never actually did any proper joinery, they just worked in some type of factory, for example just fitting doors on Portakabins all day and had no interest in learning more, for them it was just a day off work.

Going back years I think trade apprenticeships were 5 years before you were considered qualified to do the job.

Yes it was 5 years but under pressure for uk gov. was cut to 4 in about 1964/5 but better firms make you do a year probation before signing so back to 5 years. Kids in our year group had factory type joinery jobs and yes had no interest.