Training Directory

Summary: This course gives you the knowledge and skills to enable you to achieve a recognised Furniture Making trade qualification which could lead to employment or an apprenticeship.

Summary: This is a practical-based qualification that develops making, polishing and machining skills and offers a basic craft introduction to the Furniture Making industry.

Summary: This course is perfect for you if you have a love of colour, pattern, texture, fabric, materials, surface design, making, decorative drawing, decoration, constructing, manipulating, and practical engagement.

Summary: On this future and sustainability-focused Textile Design degree, you’ll develop and explore your creative potential: cultivating insightful, original design thinking in an industry-linked studio environment, encompassing both digital and artisanal textile production processes.  

Summary: The Association of Master Upholsterers and Soft Furnishers' qualifications are based on acquiring good practical and relevant skills. These qualifications may lead to employment within the industry or with additional practice may lead to you starting your own small business. The Upholstery Qualifications are delivered in three stages with each stage being a qualification in its own right and will be certificated separately. These qualifications can only be delivered by an AMUSF Approved Training Centre.

Summary: The AMUSF Essential Soft Furnishings certificate is a 1 year course taught in line with the academic year. 2023/2024 in take will run on Thursdays and Sundays. You will need to attend a minimum of 11 in studio days Between September and May. You may choose either a mix of thursdays & sundays or stick to either or, so long as 11 days in total are completed. We can comfortably host 5 students per day. However on the days where you are required to complete a full sized make, this will be limited to 3 students per day.

Summary: This is a three-stage programme designed to develop a range of both modern and traditional upholstery skills, from a simple drop-in dining chair to large traditionally upholstered armchairs, as well as developing the tailoring skills required for mid-century modern furniture. A pass is required at each stage before a student can progress to the next stage. Each stage is a qualification and there is no obligation to complete all three stages.All courses are based around the academic year: September to July with half-term and holidays in line with Bath and North East Somerset schools. Classes are one day per week which totals 240 hours over 37 days. The course fees include all the materials used in the exercise pieces, but you will be required to supply the frames and pay for the materials used on the assessment pieces only. The course tutor assesses your work at the workshop on an ongoing basis throughout the course. You will also be verified annually, on a given date, by an External Verifier appointed by the AMUSF.

Summary: This is an expert course covering both traditional and modern techniques to a very high standard. It starts with the basics of upholstery, like drop-in seats and footstools, and eventually leads to learning complex skills like restoring an iron-framed armchair or a hand-tied sprung seat edge. The Traditional Upholstery School offers training one day a week across the academic year to allow you the fit the three stages of AMUSF training round other commitments. Note that this superb, nationally recognised professional training is very much in demand. ​ ​In addition to the formal training, Traditional Upholstery School students can join our upholstery-related tours and visits. These include memorable class outings to trade shows, exhibitions and professional workroom tours. Our students are also encouraged to take on work for friends and family at early stages in the courses to build their confidence.

Summary: The Twelve Month Professional Designer/Maker Course is for individuals who want to pursue a fine furniture education at the highest level. It is for those who want to change the direction of their lives, with intention. This course will move you from novice to woodworker, from woodworker to cabinetmaker, and from cabinetmaker to craftsperson.

Summary: This course provides the first step on a path to a career within the the creative crafts industry, in the disciplines of interior design, 3D product design and furniture . The course is structured to raise awareness of the breadth and diversity of the design craft industry, and designed to enable students to acquire a range of essential practical skills whilst retaining the freedom to identify and develop areas of individual interest and ability. The course comprises six units across the two years of study (three in the diploma/three in the extended diploma) with assessment outcomes integrated into assignments, over the space of two years, gradually building on each other to provide a broad-based and vocationally relevant craft programme. During the first year students will be introduced to basic three dimensional studies and will also have the opportunity to explore related aspects of art and design and branding.

Summary: The ethos of the course has two central themes, Thinking and Doing. As educators we hope to inspire through the considerations of all aspects, giving you the tools to analytically approach a problem and consider a multitude of solutions through your designs

Summary: The BA Artist Designer Maker degree at Cardiff Met is a course that has making at its heart. You will gain hands-on experience with materials from metals, glass and ceramics through to wood and textiles. You will learn to bridge the gap between age-old skills and the latest technology and create new and original ways of making for our ever- changing world.

Summary: If you’re interested in making your imagination a reality this is the course for you. It focuses on a wide range of design sectors immersing you in the design and manufacture of products. 

Summary: The BA/BSc Product Design degree at Cardiff Met gives you the skills this fast-moving industry demands. You will explore cutting edge design thinking, sustainable design principles, material science and engineering, rapid prototyping and manufacturing, and human-centred design principles.

Summary: Our Foundation Degree in Product Design course is perfect for students wanting to pursue a career in the design industry.

Summary: Our Diploma in Design course is great for individuals keen to further their development in the creative sector

Summary: Surface Pattern and Textiles at Swansea College of Art UWTSD is a vibrant, multidisciplinary programme where we explore textiles, materiality, pattern and making.

Summary: The BA (Hons) Textile Design degree course at Cardiff Met will help you develop the creative, professional, and research skills needed to work across this diverse and growing industry.

Summary: The Traditional Upholstery Workshop is an approved training centre for the Association of Master Upholsterers and Soft Furnishers. Come and earn your AMUSF Diploma with us. The course consists of the Stage 1 Craft Certificate, the Stage 2 Intermediate Craft Certificate and the Stage 3 Diploma. The Craft Certificate courses take place over six weeks for each stage and follow a syllabus of work structured and verified by the AMUSF. The Stage 1 and 2 Craft Certificates will provide you with the skills to upholster most types of furniture and can lead on to the Stage 3 Diploma. This covers more-advanced items of furniture and is aimed towards those wanting to start an upholstery business. Each stage of the course is designed to progress and consolidate the techniques learnt. The three stages can be completed as individual certificate courses with a period of time between each stage or, on successful completion of each stage, you can proceed directly to the next. There’s no obligation to complete all three stages.

Summary: Challenge existing thinking and create engaging, sustainable and ‘disruptive’ market-ready product designs.

Summary: The Furniture, Furnishings and Interiors industry is of significant importance to the UK economy, particularly in the supply of end products for residential and commercial living and workplaces. Workplaces can be wide-ranging from small workshops to large factories. Furniture Manufacturers must be dexterous, have a good work ethic and be able to demonstrate their ability to work individually and as part of a team.

Summary: Explore your creativity and refine your technical skills with this practical studio-based course. This degree will allow you to get hands-on and delve into a range of creative practices and techniques, such as textiles, wood and metal work, fine metal and jewellery, ceramics and 3D making

Summary: This Level 2 course is ideal for someone who is keen to learn more about the creative enterprise industry and wants hands-on experience with repurposing furniture.

Summary: Product design spans a wide variety of sectors and requirements by combining creativity with technical skills. The next generation of product designers could find themselves working on the design and development of physical products, such as electronics, furniture and other manufactured goods, but also on digital products such as software or apps.

Summary: Textiles is broad industry that thrives on innovation and ideas. A BA/BSc in Textiles will support your development towards a career as a Textile Designer, Surface Designer or Textile Craft Practitioner, allowing you to connect your creative potential to the wide-ranging possibilities that this diverse subject area has to offer.

Summary: Explore and ultimately specialise in print, knit, weave or embroidery. Our academic and technical staff will help you gain practical hands-on skills, using hand techniques and digital technology, that can lead to the creation of materials and products used in the worlds of fashion, interiors or craft.

Summary: This week-long programme provides an exciting opportunity for eight talented students to learn traditional cabinetmaking and marquetry techniques from master craftspeople, from material selection to advanced finishing techniques. Over the course of six days, students make a piece of furniture each which forms a vehicle for learning skills required to make in industry at the highest level. Throughout the week, visiting lecturers in craft and design share their viewpoints and experience. Students are encouraged to explore and develop their own mindset and approach to making creatively and accurately, in order to hone their furniture making skills. In addition to the practical work, students will spend a day in the woods with a forester to discuss trees, growing and the process of harvesting and converting trunks to useful timber. They will also visit a professional furniture workshop to glue up their marquetry tops, meet practitioners and see real working environments.

Summary: This programme aims to educate and train graduate furniture designers in the value of wood as a sustainable and beautiful material for the production of design-led furniture. This design and making programme, for a small cohort of six students, will establish an understanding of the process from woodland management to design and production. Tuition fees and materials are covered by The King’s Foundation Scholarships through the generosity of its donors. Students will be guided by a Lead Furniture Tutor renowned in their field and supported by a School Manager and Workshop Assistant. Students are given time and guidance to experiment with timber in many forms to create new and exciting concepts for exploiting this adaptable material. In addition , students will be given exercises in batch producing furniture, an introduction to woodland management; growing trees for timber, as well as experience in planking and drying wood, all of which will inform a series of design briefs, leading to made furniture prototypes. Students will look at optimising timber as an environmentally sound material and develop and produce items of furniture that illustrate a sustainable and imaginative approach to this wonderful natural resource.

Summary: This programme, for existing makers, aims to develop fine furniture making skills through a series of masterclasses using British timber. This programme, for a small cohort of eight students, will develop an understanding of our native British timber from woodland management, through to design considerations, utilising the unique properties of different timbers whilst developing fine furniture and traditional hand skills. The course will encourage a respect for the traditional making skills which are key to producing high end work of quality and from a sustainable source. Developing a set of core skills which are transferable between projects will give a maker confidence to experiment and develop their own signature style. When delivered with flair and care, these traditional skills can transform a makers portfolio above that of modern, batch produced items, which hold little long term value for the owner.

Summary: The 12-week course will give you a solid foundation in furniture making and an introduction to design. Intensive and practical: You will learn about wood and material choice, hand skills, power-tool and machine-use through several practical making projects. Theory from timber technology to 3D-construction will support the practical work, and you’ll have the option of a level 3 qualification. Using your new found skills you will also make a final piece of your own design.