Fine Furniture Design & Making Diploma 19+ Part Time – September 2025

A part-time (two days a week) over three years, version of our full-time course. Students graduate with the same qualifications but work on slightly different projects.

  • Workshop and study based programme
  • Drawing, design and marking out of furniture pieces in wood
  • Making a range of furniture pieces including cabinets, chairs, tables and turned pieces
  • Use of hand tools and powered hand tools
  • Use of a range of woodworking machines
  • Complex joinery and furniture making techniques
  • Wood turning
  • Veneering and laminating
  • Finishing and polishing
  • Age 19 + required for enrolment

The Furniture Design & Making Diploma is an intensive and rigorous 3-year part-time programme structured to provide students with the skills and knowledge to progress towards a professional career in furniture making.

The programme brings together the range of skills such as joinery, wood machining, wood turning and furniture making. These accredited elements will enable students to operate to a professional standard. A strong emphasis on developing competent and confident woodworking skills – using both traditional hand tools and modern timber processing machinery – will provide students with the technical knowledge to start designing and making their own furniture items as they progress further through the course.

Taught by experienced and highly skilled tutors the course also draws on the skills and knowledge of nationally recognised furniture makers and designers and in addition, throughout the course, visits will be made to furniture workshops, exhibitions etc.

The main accredited elements of the programme are:

  • Level 2 Diploma in Bench Joinery
  • City & Guilds Level 3 Diploma in Furniture Design & Making

The Furniture Design & Making  course delivers a progressive development of skills, knowledge and abilities over a two year (six term) period. In terms one and two students focus on bench joinery skills and work towards completion of the level 2 diploma in bench joinery. Hand skills will be developed to a high level supported by training in the use of portable powered tools and fixed wood cutting machines. The following skills will be covered:

Maintenance and sharpening of tools.

Setting out and cutting of basic joints such as halvings, bridles and mortice & tenons.

Carcass and frame construction using rebates, grooves, mortice & tenons, dovetails etc.

Making a cabinet.

Making a small stair

Making a door

The qualification will be achieved, in addition to the practical pieces, by the completion of study packs and on-line tests.

During term three students will complete a more complex cabinet project and consider the influence of classical and contemporary design in furniture making, before beginning to develop their own designs for construction in the second year of the course.

The College reserves the right to change aspects of the course at any time
  • Level 2 Bench Joinery
  • City & Guilds Level 3 Furniture Design & Making
  • Completion of Maths and English initial assessment
  • Commitment to and strong interest in furniture making
  • You MUST be 19+ years of age
  • 3 years, 2 days per week, 37 weeks per year
  • These dates are not fixed and may be changed during the course fo the programme
  • September 2024 start
  • 2025/26 course fees: £9350 per year
  • Applications for scholarships can be submitted to help support fee costs
  • Into employment/self-employment

For further information please contact admissions@thebcc.ac.uk or why not attend one of our open days!

Student Success Stories

Emma Leslie

2 Year Fine Woodwork Diploma Whilst at the BCC, Emma particularly enjoyed the amount of bench time the course offered and the access to the ...
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Rowena Edwards

We caught up with Rowena Edwards who graduated from the Building Crafts College’s 2 Year Fine Woodwork Diploma course in July 2017. What did you enjoy most ...
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Luke Ebbutt James

Luke graduated from the Building Crafts College’s 2 Year Fine Woodwork Diploma in July 2015. What did you enjoyed about your course at the Building Crafts College? ...
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Dan Baxter

Nineteen-year-old Dan Baxter is an apprentice with TMJ Interiors in Suffolk. TMJ Interiors was established in 1981 and has become a leader in specialist joinery and the ...
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