Carpentry

Can you picture a house frame standing on a slab you helped lay out yourself? The Carpentry certificate at RRC Polytech’s Notre Dame Campus in northwest Winnipeg gives you that experience in one year, with two weeks of work integrated learning, and its carpentry shop sits in the campus’s Skilled Trades and Technology Centre with industry-standard machinery.

Notre Dame students open with a term of hand and machine skills: Woodworking and Hand Tools, Woodworking and Power Equipment and Woodworking Applications 1 build accuracy, while Trade Safety and Orientation, WHMIS, General Safety Training, Math for Construction Trades and Communication Strategies prepare you for site life. Term 2 moves from shop to structure with Site Layout and Concrete Foundations, Wood-Frame Construction, Roof Framing Techniques and Exterior Finishing Fundamentals, and Trade Documents teaches you to work from construction drawings.

Accredited by Apprenticeship Manitoba, the programme closes Term 2 with a two-week Field Placement on an authentic job site, open to students who hold a GPA of 2.0 or higher. Carpentry is not an apprenticeship itself, but graduates who register as apprentices within two years are credited with Level I in-school training and 900 hours of practical experience. Because the first term is shared, you can also move towards Cabinetry and Woodworking if fine joinery appeals more than framing.

Past graduates have gone on to work as residential carpenters, commercial carpenters, industrial carpenters, restoration carpenters and, with experience, site supervisors or general contractors. The Notre Dame programme suits hands-on learners who want training in a dedicated trades building and a clear route into Manitoba’s carpentry apprenticeship system.