Carpentry students get cutting edge advice

Last week, the college welcomed Abdollah Nafisi from Nafisi Design.

Abdollah – who recently appeared on BBC2’s The Victorian House of Arts and Crafts as a specialist – spent three hours in the workshops chatting to the students individually and giving advice.

He then gave a lecture on his journey from Iran to Britain and how he built his own furniture business up with his wife. The lecture was followed by a question and answer session with the students.

He talked to the class about how his current work developing interesting strategies. He talked about his current plans of implanting microchips into his furniture so clients can scan and examine the provenance of the materials and makers and find out information such as where the timber was grown and sourced.

Trevor Francis, lecturer in carpentry & joinery at Crawley College, said: “This was a fantastic opportunity for the students to learn about diversity, equality, marketing, positive social media skills, sustainability and expectations of employers in the modern workplace.

“In preparation for the lecture all the students researched Nafisi Design to discover more about the development of the company, its partners, products, their history and its values.”