AWI - Architectural Woodwork Institute

Mission: "The authoritative resource for excellence in architectural woodwork."

Since 1953, THE ARCHITECTURAL WOODWORK INSTITUTE (AWI) has helped thousands of architectural woodwork professionals grow their businesses and take their careers to the next level. With more than 2,800 members in North America, AWI today is recognized as the premier source for networking, education and industry knowledge.

Industry growth and awareness means business growth for you. Thats why AWI promotes the value of architectural woodwork and educates the industry on the highest quality standards.

Quality workmanship requires the highest level of skills and knowledge. You can depend on AWI for the education, training and network opportunities you need to succeed now and in the future.

As the authoritative resource for the advancement of architectural woodwork, AWI is committed to helping every member succeed.

Certified Custom Woodworkers Association

The CCWA is steered by a labor management committee that comprises millwork and cabinetry representatives from the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America and contactors committed to excellence.

Custom woodworking employers and cabinetmakers have an equal stake in dealing with issues facing the industry. Both are concerned with:

• Educating the best and brightest of our youth about the benefits of a career in custom woodworking
• Training our craftsmen to be experts in the latest technology, new materials and new machinery available to the trade
• Ensuring that all job sites are as safe as possible
• Maintaining high productivity and efficient installation on every job site
• Educating specifiers on the importance of demanding trained, skilled professionals for any architectural or custom woodworking project
• Maintaining fair competition within the industry based on accepted standards of quality workmanship

Nontraditional Employment for Women

Founded in 1978, Nontraditional Employment for Women is a nonprofit organization that trains women for skilled jobs in construction and other blue-collar industries. Most of the female hardhats at work today in New York City are NEW graduates.

Our pre-apprenticeship training programs lead graduates to careers that pay considerably more than jobs traditionally held by women. Union jobs also offer substantial benefit packages that include pensions, sick leave, paid vacations, and the opportunity for further education.

NEW provides opportunities for women to achieve economic self-sufficiency through employment in nontraditional work.

NYC District Council

New York District Council of Carpenters Represents Six Trades in the Industry.

Carpenters
Look around you. Just about every building in your community was at least partially built by skilled carpenters. …your home …your school …the malls where you shop …the office buildings. To be a carpenter is to be a member of one of the oldest and most respected trades. You can build a lifetime career in carpentry, if you like working with tools and like to create things. Hammer out a well built future with training in carpentry.

Interior Systems Carpenter
Here is an expanding field of work, which will offer challenges to many young people entering the construction trades. It involves the installation of all sorts of modern equipment and material in commercial buildings-acoustical ceilings, raised floors for computers, metal framing, wall partitions, and office furniture systems, just to name a few.

CabinetMaker/Millworker
Take a look around you. Notice the details and fine craftsmanship that go into creating the woodwork, cabinetry and décor in shopping malls, bank buildings, hotels and office buildings. This cabinetry and millwork is the creation of craftspeople who like to work with their hands, and take pride in working with the finest materials and tools money can buy.

Flooorlayer
The installation of carpeting, hardwood flooring, and soft tiles and " linoleum-type" products made of vinyl and rubber is the work of the floorlayer. This is a specialized occupation, which is attracting many young men and women. Floorlayers install a wide range of decorative floor coverings in commercial buildings, hotels, homes and churches.

Millwright
If you like to work with machine tools and precision instruments, and have a keen eye for perfect fit, you might consider being a millwright. Millwrights sometimes work to specifications requiring tolerances to a thousandth of an inch. In the old days, before heavy metal machinery, millwrights carved out gears and shafts from wood for mills and small industrial plants. Today millwrights are an elite group of construction workers who work primarily in metal and with machinery and equipment requiring precision. Millwrights install conveyor systems, escalators, giant electrical turbines and generators. Millwrights install and do maintenance on machinery in factories, and do much of the precision work in nuclear power plants. Millwrights are skilled construction mechanics who study and interpret blueprints, and then put their knowledge and expertise to work drilling, welding, bolting and doing whatever else is necessary to assure that the cogs of industry are in perfect working order.

Dockbuilder
They are the people who work with pile-driving rigs. You know, those big machines that look like cranes, but shake the ground as they drive metal, concrete or wood piling into the earth during the early stages of construction. Usually, dockbuilders are the first workers at the construction site. They drive metal sheet piling to hold back the dirt during excavations. They drive concrete and metal piling as part of the foundation system upon which skyscrapers are built, and they drive wood and concrete piling to hold up docks, wharfs and bridges. In some cases they work on off-shore oil rigs and as commercial divers involved in underwater construction. Dockbuilders are also required to install heavy timbers and weld or cut large metal beams. If you like working outside with large equipment, heavy materials, and sometimes under extreme weather conditions, then you'll like the hearty occupation of the dock builder!