You can take a college course that would teach you some of the skills needed to get a trainee wood machinist position. 

Courses include:

• basic construction skills
• carpentry and joinery
• wood machining

Entry requirements

Entry requirements for these courses vary.

You could apply to do a Level 2 Intermediate Apprenticeship, such as:

• Wood Machinist
• Wood Product Manufacturing Operative
• Carpentry and Joinery

If you want to work in the furniture industry you could do a Furniture Manufacturing Level 2 Intermediate Apprenticeship.

These take around 2 years to complete and are a mix of on-the-job training with study time spent off-site.

Entry requirements

You'll usually need:

• 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), or equivalent, including English and maths, for an advanced apprenticeship
• some GCSEs, usually including English and maths, or equivalent, for an intermediate apprenticeship

You could start as a labourer in construction, or an assistant with a wood products or furniture manufacturing company.

You could then specialise in machining work after doing on-the-job training.

You could apply directly to work as a wood machinist with companies that make timber products. You'll usually need experience of working with manufacturing machinery, CNC machine tools or bench joinery.

Further information

You can learn more about how to become a wood machinist from Go Construct.

You'll need:

• the ability to operate and control equipment
• to be thorough and pay attention to detail
• the ability to work well with your hands
• concentration skills
• the ability to analyse quality or performance
• knowledge of maths
• the ability to work on your own
• knowledge of manufacturing production and processes
• to be able to use a computer and the main software packages competently

As a wood machinist, you could:

• follow detailed technical drawings to plan jobs
• work out the amount and type of timber needed
• measure and mark out cutting lines
• cut and shape timber, using tools like saws, planes and routers
• operate computer numerically controlled (CNC) equipment
• carry out quality control checks

In some jobs, you'll also assemble products, using the pieces you've created.

You could work in a workshop or at a sawmill.

Your working environment may be dusty, physically demanding and noisy.

You may need to wear safety clothing and use safety equipment.