The students of Omnia vocational education (wood sector) in Espoo, Finland, had the privilege to visit Võrumaa Kutsehariduskeskus in Väimela, Estonia during 27-29.4.2016.

During our trip south from Tallinn, we also visited Tartu Loodusmaja, which is an ecological building, representing modern wood architecture http://www.tartuloodusmaja.ee/link opens on new page . I would recommend this visit just for the simple but beautiful building. Inside you will find a small greenhouse with plants and animals.

Our main destination was Võrumaa Kutsehariduskeskus, which is situated in the south of Estonia in Väimela. The vocational training centre boasts with its newly renovated buildings, which is a nice balance between the old and the new. The buildings are a collection of old manor houses and local barns and stables from the 1920-1950. The vocational institute offers a wide range of courses ranging from technological studies such as metal and wood to administrative courses such as marketing and tourism and commerce.

On our first day we met the staff at the centre, Siret Lillemäe (Project manager) and Jörgen Dobris (Develoment manager of wood processing), who led our through the wood department and stress test facilities. We were very impressed by the new and shiny facilities, which would be a dream to any woodcrafting students with endless opportunities. Our objective was to stress test the prototypes of our “working with a designer” course. Omnia collaborates with old, as well as up-and-coming furniture designers on a course where students have the chance to be a part the designing and manufacturing process of a product. We had set our test pieces to Estonia in advance where we would test the joints of each particular piece. The pieces this year ranged from a table with normal dovetail joints to storage box with a miter joint. It was great to see how strong some of the joints were ranging up to 2t or 20000 newton. In the evening we had dinner with the staff and students at a local pub in the centre town of Võru.

On our second day, we visited the TSENTER www.tsenter.eelink opens on new page , where we saw a demonstration of a 5 axis CNC router machine and explored through the facilities of an old cow barn that had been restored to a wonderful modern facility. Other areas included a painting line, modern laser scanner that enable printing straight onto wood with different contours, a laser cutter and a small lab were you could age wood in an oven, test the durability of paints and printed surfaces. We had a great tour through the center by Jörgen Dobris. By lunch we concluded our visit to a local woodcrafting company Perepuit OÜ, where we were shown general furniture manufacturing and finishing.

On the part of Omnia, we would like to thank the staff of Võrumaa Kutsehariduskeskus for their hospitality and the wonderful possibility to visit their vocational center.

Juhani Horelli