Thanks for the welcome everyone.
Hi XTiffy.
Similar story here. I started as a mechanical and electrical engineer after leaving school in 1976. Around 1980, I switched from working with metal and wires to wood. A friend with a pine-stripping business took me on while I figured out my next steps. The appeal of working with wood grew on me, and I landed a job in a busy restoration workshop in Islington, North London, during the boom in antique furniture in the early '80s. Starting at the bottom, doing various tasks, I gradually worked my way up through the ranks and eventually started my own venture in the mid to late '90s.
Every summer, we received CVs from graduates of West Dean and the London College of Furniture. The business owner always made a point of trialling at least one. Some went on to be competent restorers, their initial months were a bit of a transition (more like shock therapy) from theory and contemplation to get it done.
The insufficient focus on woodwork and metalwork in schools is a topic that you do not want to get me started on. Some of my clients, retired headmasters, share my opinion about the current state of education in these subjects. These days, many course instructors have simply come top-of-the-class as students who then get promoted to teachers. The lack of properly funded and staffed courses is a bit of a mystery as interest is as high as it's ever been. The only thing that's changed is that they call it 'up cycling' or 'mindfullness' these days
I have a slightly different take on this.
Retrained as a furnituremaker about 5 years ago, in a great local college. Class sizes were small, about 10-12 per year group. They were not turning people away. Over the way was the site carpentry group, class sizes around 30.
I was lucky enough to get on to an apprenticeship programme, which is almost unheard of for someone older than 19 or so ( basically first year they must pay you £4 per hr, but second year onwards you have to be paid at the appropriate minimum wage for your age..)
Jobs in cabinetmaking advertised here in West Sussex if I average the wage vs experience required seem to be mainly asking for 5 years full time industry experience, with many topping out at £25-£27k per annum. There aren’t that many places to find these jobs either. Starting wages are either minimum wage, or perilously close to minimum wage.
Fine furniture and cabinetmaking is kind of lumped in with the manufacturing industry, and is an incredibly difficult landscape to make a living in.
Apprenticeships are still, in my humble opinion the best option for trained individuals to work for 99% of cabinetmaking firms. “Full time” college students are taught for 2 days a week, and almost always don’t also have a job in industry the rest of the time, whereas apprentices are hands on in a working environment the rest of the time, and often learning the nuts as bolts of everything. Obviously a slightly different setup at west dean and indeed places like waters and ackland where students will attend a truly intensive programme of study, but the environment and projects they work on both at college and at other training providers must be considered. West dean for example, whilst admittedly learning all the skills to do so, they might make 2 or three proper pieces of (hopefully) very fine furniture in a year, working full time. So obviously have the skill to do so, but turning this into a profitable employee is different.
I do think companies have a significant role to play in this decline, apprenticeships are now very scarce. I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect someone to pay entirely for their own education, then be fully and perfectly qualified for my individual business needs, whilst also (admittedly sector wide !) offering low wages.
If as a business I offer apprenticeships, I get to mould candidates as I need them, and expose them to a real working environment from day 1.
I don’t think at a government level money is being pumped into training in furnituremaking, because the broad thinking is that in a few years somehow robots or ai will have it sewn up..
another way of looking at it is, if there are less classes, and still as much general interest in the community for people to attend these classes, why aren’t the existing classes over subscribed and difficult to get a place on ?
