The Bolster-Up II project aimed to recognize qualifications and competencies for three furniture sector professions cabinetmaker, upholsterer and joiner by enhancing their transparency and comparability, and establishing mutually recognized European core profiles.
The European Social partners of the Furniture sector assign great importance to vocational education and training.
This project mainly concerns the recognition of qualifications and competencies for three professions in the (industrial) furniture sector: 1. Upholsterer, 2. Joiner and 3. Cabinetmaker. These core profiles will support the activities to raise the quality of existing national VET programs. The report produced provides an updated analysis of these three professions, which reflect the continuous changes in these job as well as future needs.
This project is in line with the “New Skills Agenda for Europe”, in particular for the initiatives aiming at making VET a first choice and making skills and qualification more comparable, including both higher skills and those acquired through non-formal and informal learning. The project is a further follow-up of the Bolster-Up I project on furniture professions. The origin of the Bolster-Up project lies in the Leonardo da Vinci project on “Transparency for Upholstering and Cabinetmaking Qualifications and Quality in the European Furniture Industry”.
As the name suggest, a joiner is a professional who makes and assembles elements/furniture parts based on wood and its derivatives, using hand tools, electrical hand-operated machinery and woodworking machines. S/he is also capable of finishing the surfaces of these elements/parts. Joiners work with a vast array of hand tools, electrical hand-operated machinery and woodworking machines. S/he works as a basic skilled worker for large and medium sized companies operating in the wood and furniture industry or in small, more craft-based companies. We can consider the joiner as a generally recognized or “universal woodworker”.
The upholsterer is a professional who produces upholstery and upholstered parts of furniture. S/he works as a skilled worker for large and medium sized companies operating in the upholstery industry or in small, more craft based companies.
As the name suggest, a cabinetmaker is a professional who produces ‘cabinets’, furniture and parts of furniture. Various wood species, materials and styles can be used. Cabinetmakers work with a vast array of tools and woodworking machines. S/he works as a skilled worker for large and medium sized companies operating in the furniture industry or in small, more craft-based companies.