The Furniture Design and Joinery program at the NIC’s Tebo campus in Port Alberni is helping to turn out trained crafters to make furniture and cabinets for a growing industry.

A recent Statista survey noted Canada has the seventh largest furniture market globally, while the province’s Labour Market Outlook for 2024 shows growth for cabinetmakers and furniture assemblers. 

This program offers students many avenues to pursue when they graduate. They may become apprentices, self-employed cabinetmakers, artisans or enjoy woodworking as a hobby. Each student gets their own cabinet-maker workbench with a drawer full of hand tools. No experience is needed, as students learn to design and build beautiful heirloom quality furniture from an instructor with an international reputation with high-end tools. 

Stephen McIntosh has taught the program for 14 years, coming to NIC from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. He brings many years of experience not only in the classroom but also as a joinery judge and now skills advisor for WorldSkills, a global competition that covers everything from 3D digital game art and aircraft maintenance to web technologies and welding.

Through Furniture Design and Joinery, students learn to design, construct, finish and repair woodwork like kitchen cabinets, furniture and fixtures. Graduates earn Level 1 technical training credit and work-based training hours toward interprovincial (Red Seal) certification and a university certificate in Furniture Design and Construction.

The program runs 36 weeks and is limited to 16 students. It prepares them for careers in areas such as millwork, furniture building, cabinet making, marine joinery, residential finishing carpentry, sales or as self-employed artisans. 

Some students, McIntosh said, are interested in starting their own businesses, while others continue to gain skills in the workplace. While this region has more niche market businesses, there are still opportunities.

“I get employers contacting me all the time,” he said.

McIntosh has also had carvers and other artists take the program, as they find ways to incorporate the woodwork into their other creations. People also come from around Vancouver Island for the program, with many commuting for classes over a four-day week.

The program attracts a diverse group of students, including people from different age ranges, such as retirees who want to learn to work with wood and now have time.

Joe Adelhardt worked in different jobs over many years, including renovation work, fish farming and drywalling, but wanted something different.

“I thought this was something I can do at home,” he said. “I’ve got a fairly good workshop.” 

He’s a few weeks away from finishing an ambitious dining room table, complete with maple leaf inlays that are appropriately made of maple. The idea came courtesy of his wife who has seen the drawings for his project.

“We’re kind of in the process of renovating our kitchen,” he said.

As well, McIntosh always has some international students in his class, with students coming from places like Ireland, France and Australia. He has even had teachers from the Arctic come for training, and one woman from England who took the program is back home working on the interior of the London Bridge.

Since last fall, he’s had two students from India, Aakash Rohit and Deepvarinder Singh, who were both new to woodworking. 

“This is the first time,” Rohit said. “The class is giving me a lot of hands-on experience.” 

They have been working on class projects with veneer or solid wood inlays. The design element of the course allows them to research ideas online and adapt a plan for what they want to build and how it should look.

“I searched the Internet, then I get the idea,” Singh said. 

For example, Rohit has incorporated a colourful fox into his small wooden box while Singh has made musical notes as an inlay. Both are interested in gaining more experience with employers. Rohit said he will go where there is a job opportunity in a growing market, while Singh specifically is interested in woodworking opportunities in the Kelowna area.

Guiding all of these students is McIntosh, who appreciates the mix of people in his class.

“There’s a lot of interaction and helping each other. The course allows that. That’s how I designed it,” he said. “It’s a community.”