Genuine Woodworking Course Apprenticeships are still alive.
There used to be a time when apprenticeships were a normal way of training young people in those complex skills that, after a period of 3 to 5 years, would earn them a living for life.
This is no more, apparently we can no longer afford it! Instead, politicians play with Vocational Training and young people pay for poor university courses. Bah!
Except there are still a few real apprenticeships left. Doug Williams, 22, of Lancaster has just won a place, only one of three offered, at the famous Edward Barnsley Workshop, a woodworking school in Petersfield England. This is a charitable trust set up to provide a genuine five-year training in cabinetmaking for a few lucky people. Here he will learn to make furniture to the very highest standard. Selected from a field of over 100 applicants how did Doug win such a prestigious place?
The answer is that he worked hard for it. Doug attended an intensive one-year fee paying course here at this workshop. “He worked very hard,” said David “ and that is the key. This year is very intensive, it’s 50 weeks in a high quality commercial workshop learning alongside our craftsmen. These students have to quickly learn to make to a very high standard. Dougie made some very good pieces of work here. He will hopefully go on from here and develop into a very fine furniture designer”. Other young people seeking to follow Dougies example should look here to see how to join this workshop.
