Ready to take your first steps into the furniture-making industry? This 6-week course offers hands-on training, technical skills, and the support you need to build your confidence and pursue a career in furniture. Whether you’re a recent graduate, career switcher, or looking for an entry point, this programme is tailored for you. Application are now open for our 6-week workshop experience as part of our Woodworking and Gender Project.
We recently had the absolute pleasure of hosting our second Woodworking and Gender seminar ‘Carving Change’, and what an incredible experience it was! Despite the challenges brought by flooding across the country, participants travelled from near and far to be with us, bringing energy, insights, and passion to help shape the future of furniture making…
Are you part of the UK’s Woodworking or Furniture-making industry? If so, we want to hear from you, whether you are an employer, worker, teacher or student. You are invited to take part in our national survey.
We’re excited to announce this year’s Woodworking and Gender seminar: Carving Change: Woodworking and Marginalised Genders will take place on the 29th and 30th November. Get your tickets!
We are delighted to welcome Cathrin (Cat) Poppensieker to the Sylva team. Cat will lead our new Woodworking and Gender Project, funded by The National Heritage Lottery Fund and other generous supporters. The project aims to address the significant gender imbalance in the heritage woodworking sector. The project envisions a transformed woodworking industry, driven by…
To celebrate the start of our Woodworking and Gender Project we are excited to offer a £3,000 bursary to join our Professional Course. Are you a practical person attracted to learning new skills and experiences in working with wood? Perhaps you have some previous woodworking experience and wish to learn professional practice skills whilst building…
Sylva Foundation, a national environmental charity based in Oxfordshire, has been awarded a grant of £240,000 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to tackle gender inequality in Britain’s heritage woodwork and furniture making sectors. The charity runs a successful wood school and hosts multiple businesses at its Wood Centre in Long Wittenham, South Oxfordshire. Through…
On International Women’s Day we look forward to bringing our Woodworking and Gender programme to life in 2024.
An innovative Woodworking and Gender Seminar was hosted by Sylva Foundation on October 13, 2023. More than 70 participants came together at the Sylva Wood Centre for a day of talks, workshops and discussions around gender equality in the woodworking industry. Initial feedback has focused on the seminar not just being a success in bringing…
We are delighted to publish a full report of the amazing 2022 Summer School run in partnership with the V&A Museum. In September 2022, the third annual Sylva Wood Summer School took place in collaboration with the V&A Museum, and specifically the Make Good: Rethinking Material Futures programme to create ‘Field Notes.’ This exciting collaboration…