Apprentice Cabinet Maker Review

A major part of my role day to day is making products used in bespoke kitchens, mainly, at this point in time, since I have progressed over a year into my position, this involves making various doors and other panels, and large numbers of drawers, to a professional standard of quality.

Everything I have learned about woodwork I have learned at Chiselwood, every person there is knowledgeable and passionate about their trade and jumps at every opportunity to share their wisdom with me. I have learned from everyone there from the bosses to the finishers in the spray shop.

I love my job, and the personal development I've experienced during my time working for Chiselwood has been the best period of my life thus far.

Chiselwood aside, whose management I believe do have a plan when it comes for my development in the workshop, one that - at least - I can ascertain relatively easily, I have had some issues with my official study programme provided by the college, and it is based on those experiences I will submit this rating.

As much as I need, at every turn my bosses have been there, checking up on me and the rest of us as a group, I truly believe they have our best interests at heart, and even many of the local community view them as a business that looks after their people, because many who have found out I had an apprenticeship there were very enthused.

In terms of the written work there is little support needed, and I'm confident in my english to complete it independantly. On the other hand when it comes to physical training, I can think of only a handful of times I have actually been taught how to complete something from start to finish. It often at times seems like they expect me to know it already, and the most shocking incident was when it came to me making a small set of stairs, bearing in mind I have never done this before, and my instructors were actually apprehensive when I asked them in plain terms to teach me what to do. The college is understaffed, massively, and the one or two staff there who are passionate about really teaching the students properly are so few that it's impossible for them, and I can always tell it pains them greatly. It is a great shame that it seems most instructors I've had are afraid to pick up a saw themselves and show me how they would do it, leaving me to rely mostly on one or two people and an array of youtube videos. This is the complete opposite to at work, where everyone has a different way of working and will gladly show me and explain it in detail. In a way instructors at college would react the same way about me completing my staircase, they all had different suggestions, but none of which worked with the progress I had already attained on them. Every couple of hours on every day, we would have a new instructor, and it would sometimes take 30 mins or more to explain to every new one what I had been doing, under the guidance of the one prior. It was like a tag-team match but the ones outside the ring aren't watching the fight. In the end, my stairs were a jumbled mess with holes in all sides, and they only got together because I ignored the changling instructor and ran off with my mate to the technician who was there all day, to help us finish, which i say lightly. (I expect they're still sat un-glued in the technician's machine shop).

Not all all, everything useful I have learned going into my position was gained at my level one course last year, obviously thats mainly to do with using tools and basic woodworking joints, which I have carried with me. But I have learned nothing in this first year of my apprenticeship that helps me in any way at my workplace. So I have learned everything I need to do my job at Chiselwood, at Chiselwood.

We have enjoyed many events and even days out together, which has been a giant albeit welcome surprise, our bosses definitely subscribe to the "work hard, play hard" idea, and our hard work never goes unrewarded. We have bonded well as a team and we all have each other's back, and some genuinely strong friendships have been formed between the new team. (Most of which have joined after I started there!)

Yes

Working for Chiselwood is a privelege, you have an amount of freedom there, and everyone is respected as an individual. Your hard work is recognsed and rewarded, it is right on the doorstep for me and for the thousands that live in the more rural setting of Saxilby. The conversaton between colleagues when reasonably practicable is both stimulating and warming, and everyone has a sense that were working towards something special, that's going to be experienced by our clients, something sort of untouchable, that's what were striving for. Its magic!

Get it while you can! You must go that extra mile, for real, that is the Chiselwood spirit, the idea that we CAN do better, and you have to want to see yourself grow. If you manage to get through the door come with an open mind, drop all expectations and just roll with it, try your best. (Im still wondering why they let me through the door myself, but maybe that's the point?)