A week-long woodworking course doesn’t seem long enough to learn very much.

But our introductory courses do teach students quite a lot.

Enough, certainly, to give them DIY skills that they can then use around the house.

On our introductory course last week, we had students of all ages.  From a young ballet dancer to the not-so-recently retired.

All were there to see if woodworking was something they wanted to pursue.  It also gives them additional confidence in basic skills.

One of the students last week has already signed up for our professional course which starts next month.

The good news for her is that her introductory course fees will be deducted from her professional course fees.

It’s our way of encouraging people to find out whether they’d be suited to life as a professional woodworker.

Not only that but they can see our workshops in action.  They can also meet graduates now working from incubation space on the campus.

That gives them a rounded picture of the Chippendale school.  From that, they can make a long-term decision whether or not to enrol.

Busy and useful

Nor is our introductory-to-professional student the only one on the 2019/20 course.

We also have a retired pilot from Germany who wants to keep himself busy and useful.

That’s one of the great things about woodworking because it’s a set of skills that can be practiced at any age.

Nor do we look, in our professional course candidates, for any prior woodworking experience or design skills.

Because almost the first thing that our students learn is the art of design, and visualising them in 3D.

For other students unable to commit to the nine-month professional course, a natural step up is to enrol on our intermediate course.

In the past year, we’ve had students from as far as Brazil, Australia and Trinidad and Tobago coming on these one-month courses.

Entirely flexible

It’s fun, intensive and hard work and is a course designed to turbo-boost basic skills, taking each student’s skills up several notches.

It’s also a course on which we only take two students to maximise one-to-one tuition, and start and finish dates are entirely flexible.

And, for students who can’t take a month off work, we can split the course into more manageable segments.

Two students on the 2018/19 professional course had completed the one-month course before deciding that furniture design and making was for them

Indeed, one of those students had also completed the one-week course, finally realising how much she loved working with wood.

You can see details of our professional course here, our intermediate course here, and our introductory course here.

Later this week we’ll take a look at a couple of our students from last week.

Note: Two places remain on our professional course 2019/20, so if you think that woodworking is something for you, contact us here.