A rapid increase in Chinese timber frame construction has led to Canada offering training courses in Beijing.
Canada Wood College has started courses at the Beijing Jingbei Vocational College.
Canada’s minister of natural resources, Christian Paradis, and British Columbia’s (BC) forests minister, Pat Bell, announced the start of the courses and said the college would help close the wood building skills gap in China.
“There are currently 6,000 wood frame homes under construction or being planned in the greater Beijing region,” said Mr Bell.
“Canada Wood College training will be instrumental to BC lumber taking the dominant share of these new wood frame construction projects.”
The college’s training is aimed at engineers, architects, project managers, site supervisors and carpenters.
More than 120 students have applied for 30 spaces this year.
Meanwhile, one of China’s largest building materials companies and a major manufacturer of prefabricated homes – Beijing National Building Materials (BNBM) – has saigned an agreement to build a wood frame building in Beijing with technical support from Canada Wood China.
“This agreement is the start of a long-term working relationship with a very influential, national-level player who will maximise the promotion of wood-frame products in the Chinese market,” said Mr Bell.
BNBM is also building a three-storey wood fame and concrete building on Chengdu, with design support and lumber sponsored by Canada and BC.
