The final and most anticipated exam of the apprenticeship or vocational training as Carpenters is building their own furniture piece— the journeyman's piece or Gesellenstück. After learning theory and in the Carpentry 2.5 years (total is 3 years), an apprentice is able to decide which furniture piece they want to plan, make a 3D skit, plan for the materials and build— all within a given framework, rules, big deadline and of course constant supervision.

The rewarding part of it all is that the apprentice is not only able to show off some of his skills, but also take his new piece of furniture home. Depending on what type of Carpentry they do their apprenticeship with, they also gather different type of experience during the 2.5 years previous to the decision and planning of the type of Journeyman's piece they want to build. If the carpentry specializes only on a specific type of furniture, they might not have had the chance to build and work with different type of designs, techniques, wood types. This is why small carpentries might choose to work with each other and exchange apprentices in order to make sure their experience diversifies.

At p3, we are always open for collaboration and have worked with another carpentry to offer an Ausbildung to Joel, meaning he was 50% of the time with us and 50% at our carpentry partner 1A-werkteam GmbH (master Stefan Kepper). This made it possible for Joël to be offered an Ausbildung, since the costs and the responsibilities were carried by p3 and another Carpentry. We have greatly benefitted from this partnership learning from the experience and knowledge of Stefan Kepper. At the same time of Joël's apprenticeship was also Tedros apprenticeship, which meant Joël & Tedros were able to go to Berufsschule or Vocational Training school (to learn mostly the theory behind Carpentry) together! Tedros and Joel got along super well from the day they met and became good friends outside of work and school—which definitely helped once Corona hit and impacted their apprenticeship since they couldn't attend theory school anymore and had to do it from "home". At p3, we were able to see how we could support as we could and what ended up being about 1 year of "online class". Regardless of all the difficulties that Corona brought for Joël and Tedros, they stuck together and pushed through learning and learning.

And after the 2.5 years the time came to build their Journeyman's piece- we all waited anxiously with anticipation their decision fo what they would build, which design, which wood— they could finally add their own style design to their own furniture! It was their chance to show what they can do, what they love, what they're good at.

So here are the pictures of the final results— we could not be more proud and congratulate the two on successfully becoming Carpentry Journeyman this summer 2022!

And here also some pictures of the final ceremony, when they received their official certificates!