The Vermont Woodworking School Immersion Program is a full-time furniture design and woodworking education program.
Immerse yourself in the challenging pursuit of woodworking with the support of skilled craftspeople and a creative community of woodworkers.
We accept new students for our Spring, Summer, and Fall semesters throughout the year. No woodworking experience is necessary to apply. We're looking for hard-working, creative, and dedicated people who are excited about starting a career in woodworking. Students may enroll for a minimum of 9 weeks and can stay for up to two and a half academic years.
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Incoming students may choose to start with a 9-week partial semester and enroll in just Foundations 1. This option is only available for first-semester students during the spring or fall semesters. If they wish, these students may choose to continue into Design 1 and remain for the full 15 weeks after arriving at school.
Take the leap and start your craft!
Immersion Program
Spring
Dates:
January 21 - May 16, 2025
Tuition:
9-week Partial semester - $7,200
Full semester - $9,100
VWS housing - on or off campus:
9-week Partial semester - $2,500
Full semester - $3,400
Summer
Dates:
June 2 - August 8, 2025
Tuition:
10-week semester - $7,200
VWS housing - on or off campus:
10-week semester - $2,500
Fall
Dates:
August 25 - December 19, 2025
Tuition:
9-week Partial semester - $7,200
Full semester - $9,100
VWS housing - on or off campus:
9-week Partial semester - $2,600
Full semester - $3,500
Curriculum
First Semester - Foundations 1
This 9-week class is structured around building a Shaker-style end table while introducing the fundamentals of woodworking and furniture making. You'll spend time sharpening and tuning your hand planes and learn safe practices in our machine shop.
When we aren't talking about wood movement or laying out dovetails for some hand-cut joinery, you can work on your turning skills or catch up on your drafting.
Students can choose to enroll in just Foundations 1 as a 9-week course, but most continue into Design Studio 1 to complete the full semester.
First Semester - Small Tables
After you're settled into the shop and working on your Shaker table, we introduce our first design-to-build class. Start on paper with a series of sketches, then build small models and work out the joinery. Students are guided through class discussions and instructor feedback, honing in on the design they'll spend the rest of the semester building. This is where more experienced students can stretch their wings, or new woodworkers can focus in on the details that make a simple piece shine.
Second Semester - Wall-Hung Cabinet
In Foundations 2, second-semester students expand their furniture-making knowledge with more advanced techniques. A series of small projects focus on veneer work, laminated bends, and other types of joinery. In our Digital Skills elective, students are introduced to 3D modeling in Fusion 360 to assist with designing complex pieces of furniture.
Their final project for the semester is a wall-hung cabinet with a door and a drawer. For some students this is an exercise in design specificity - creating a piece for a specific location or use. Others set aside functionality to create a more decorative piece.
Third Semester - Casework Construction
In the third semester, students gain a deep understanding of casework pieces. All students complete a chest of drawers using web-frame construction and hand-cut dovetail drawers. Pieces range in size from delicate pen chests to full-size dressers.
This class is all about putting your skills to use on a challenging project, so there's extra emphasis on preparation with working drawings and construction schedules, and students are required to track their work hours.
Fourth Semester - Chairs
In the fourth semester, students complete a chair design project. Students are challenged to build a chair that is aesthetically pleasing from all sides, constructed without arms, and incorporates complex angle joinery. Students will also learn how to create a drop-in upholstered seat and a woven seat. Chairs can appear simple in structure, but the advanced joinery required takes planning and skill, and design restrictions lead to unexpected and creative visions of what a chair can be.
Fifth Semester - Capstone
The Capstone Course provides time and space for you to work from concept to completion on whatever you dream up. In this class, you will experience the stresses and tensions that can be typical in a professional creative environment. Simultaneous time pressure and ambiguous direction! This project-based studio will provide an opportunity for you to apply your woodworking and design skills in an experience that will mirror the requirements of professional projects, whether that be a client commission, a personal artistic project, or a business concept that you can't wait to get started on.
The Shop
Vermont Woodworking School is located in a renovated three-story dairy barn from the 1800s. Now transformed into a modern woodworking facility, the barn houses three machine shops, eight lathes, a sanding room, a finishing room, almost 40 benches, a 12-seat computer lab, photo studio, gallery, offices, and a large common area. If you choose to live on campus, we have a farmhouse and two silos that contain fourteen single-occupancy rooms.
Tools & Materials
Each semester, students are loaned a personal toolkit. In addition, students have access to many shared hand tools throughout the shop. Students are required to bring their own personal protective equipment and materials that cannot be shared. Students are issued a materials credit at the Treehouse Hardwoods & Millshop in South Burlington for purchasing lumber for their design projects.