A New Wave of Makers: Our Apprenticeship Programme
A small workshop we might be, but that doesn’t mean our ambitions aren’t big and our thinking isn’t broad, which is why we started the Forest to Home apprenticeship programme in 2018. Established to support studying or wannabe woodworkers into the world of work but equally to widen the net of who the next generation of furniture makers might be, as of April 2024 we proudly count two apprentices within our team of 15 with a further two joining us later this summer.
The Apprentice: Meet The Team
Thankfully, we don’t run our Apprenticeship Programme with pointed fingers and announcements of being fired, à la Lord Sugar. Ours very much end up with hiring offers with employment baked into things from the get-go – they’re full-time employed by us from the start with a job offer of Junior Maker at the end of it.
Right now, Alice is our first-year apprentice, and she’s no regular trainee at that. A finalist in the Screwfix Trade Apprentice Competition, she wants to ultimately become an ambassador for women entering the furniture-making trade – something our apprenticeship model is hugely behind what with only 2% of the 800,000 UK tradespeople being female at present.
A little further along in our programme is apprentice number two, Archie who’s just a couple of months away from qualifying and has so far shown what a specialist-in-the-making he is. Archie is an extremely confident, capable and respected member of the team already.
Alex is one of our most recent team members to have completed our two-year programme (where apprentices spend four days with us in our Wiltshire workshop with their fifth day in college). His season as an apprentice drew to a close in 2021 and has since gone from strength to strength. Now a Senior Furniture Maker for Forest to Home, he’s shown such strength that he’s also team leader for our residential projects.
From Our Founders
“We’re hyper aware of how the woodworking trade needs to diversify, and that includes our own company which is still very male-lead,” explains Will Hibbert, co-founder of Forest to Home. “Furniture-making in the UK has long been the game of a white male workforce, but we hope that if we can be part of the force to help the industry evolve to become more inclusive then in as little as a decades’ time the shape of the carpentry landscape will be a whole lot richer.”
Interested in becoming an apprentice with us? Send along a CV and tell us what makes you want to join Forest to Home.
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