The Woodwise Academy wood-processing training centre will officially open this month.
The new facility, housed in a former engineering factory in Riverside, Bristol, is the brainchild of Didac Ltd, the training agency. It includes a machine shop equipped with the range of wood-processing technology, from power tools to CNC machining centres, and is targeting courses at the broad range of wood-processing companies, including furniture and joinery manufacturers and timber merchants with mill facilities.
It also offers IT training in computer-aided design.
The total cost of setting up the Academy was £750,000. Of this, £465,000 came from Didac itself and sponsors, with the balance from the Skills Funding Agency following recommendation from Proskills, the timber industry’s Sector Skills Council.
Didac, which is City & Guilds approved, says it will use the new facility to “expand provision of certificated qualifications into the industry tailored to employers’ needs”.
“There has long been a need for specialist training provision in the woodworking sector that is able to deliver quality training required by employers both on and off their sites,” said Didac managing director Jon Gibson. “We believe the Academy will become recognised as a centre of excellence in [this] training provision.”
Among the organisations supporting the new venture is the British Woodworking Federation (BWF). Didac is a partner in the BWF’s Wood Industry Training Forum and trainees will now be able to take the latter’s courses at the Bristol facility.
The Academy ran its first health and safety courses in July, but will be fully up and running after its September 27 open day.
For more information contact info@didac.co.uk or call 0117 9049377.
