Carpentry and Woodworking

Would you rather frame a roof or build the kitchen cabinets that go under it? Assiniboine’s nine-month Carpentry and Woodworking certificate lets you learn both trades side by side. It is a pre-apprenticeship programme taught in the Len Evans Centre for Trades and Technology on Assiniboine’s North Hill campus in Brandon, and it starts each September.

The course list follows a house from the ground up. Blueprint Reading, Building Layout, Construction Trades Geometry and Building Materials teach you to read a plan and set it out on site, while Construction Safety and Hand Tools build safe habits from the first week. You then move through Concrete Forming Technology, Wood Frame Construction, Roof Framing, Stair Building, Exterior Finishing and Interior Finishing, with Building Science explaining how walls handle heat and moisture. On the woodworking side, Shop Layout, Woodworking Machines 1, Woodworking Machines 2 and a nine-credit Cabinet Making course take you into furniture and millwork.

Assiniboine teaches carpentry in dedicated shops, the largest of which is big enough for large-scale builds and framing projects, so students progress from hand tools to advanced machine work on real assemblies. Practicum - CARP then puts you on a job site for about three weeks. Graduates who register as an apprentice within two years and hold a 70% average in trade subjects may receive credit for Level 1 Carpenter apprenticeship training and 900 hours.

Carpentry and Woodworking graduates find work with residential and commercial builders, general contractors, prefabrication and truss plants, building maintenance companies and cabinet shops, and some go on to material merchandising roles. Common titles include apprentice carpenter, framer, cabinetmaker’s helper and finish carpenter. The certificate suits hands-on learners who want a head start on a Manitoba carpentry apprenticeship and like the idea of keeping both site work and shop work open as options.