Scope of gems and jewellery skill education in India

Indian gems and jewellery industry is considered to be the global hub, it is well established and recognised worldwide for its craftsmanship and variety. The industry is highly labour intensive and export oriented; it involves not just workmanship but a lot of patience and dedication to the art of jewellery making. This sector has grown at a significant CAGR of 22 per cent. With the market size of almost Rs. 4,54,100 crores, gems and jewellery sector plays an important role in the Indian economy with its share of the GDP at 5.9 per cent. The sector currently employs about 3.5 million employees and is estimated to employ more than 6 million employees by 2022; which implies that there will be additional creation of around 2.5 million jobs in the next 6 years.

India as a country has an advantage when it comes to absolute number of workforce, but the industry is facing a crucial shortage of “skilled” and “qualified” manpower. As the companies today compete with the best in the world, their requirement for trained and skilled personnel will increase. Skills are one motivating force for the financial and economic growth of the industry. Skilled employees not only help provide superior products but they also help in completing the overall process in a more efficient manner and the manufacturing defects are on the lower side, which results in cost effectiveness.

In order to attract large number of artisans in the next coming years, it is of vital importance that the industry adopts the policy of promoting and supporting skilling. The average age of the workers in this industry is 25-45 years, where workers are typically from low-income families and often school drop-outs. They are either trained by an elder in the family, by a co-worker or a fellow villager.

To facilitate and aid gem and jewellery industry with skilled manpower, the Gem and Jewellery Skill Council of India (GJSCI) came into existence. GJSCI is the nodal entity for skill development of the Indian Gem & Jewellery industry. Formed in 2012 under the aegis of the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE), our aim is to create an organised training and development eco-system in the jewellery industry to produce skilled workforce at par with global quality standards.

We envision nurturing confidence, improving productivity and giving direction through proper skill development. Skill development will enable the youth to get worthy job opportunities and the industry to get good skilled employees, which is the need of the hour.

To develop their skills and get certified, upcoming students can enroll into various colleges which are affiliated by Gem & Jewellery Skill Council of India (GJSCI) conducting Basic Jewellery Designing and Computer-aided jewellery Designing Courses such as IIGJ- Mumbai & Jaipur, IGJ-Malappuram, etc. which aim at providing high level of education and training to the budding students.

GJSCI is working towards skilling gem and jewellery industry since 2012 to create a talent pool of certified students as per international standards; enhance their efficiency and productivity. Further, we help skilled and certified artisans gain worthwhile employment and assist them in becoming entrepreneurs by connecting them with the investors.

GJSCI has also taken a golden step supporting Digital India by highlighting the need for quality salesmanship in the jewellery sector, introducing Digital Jewellery Retail Sales Associate (JRSA), an e-learning application and an exclusive job portal for gems and jewellery industry named gjscijobs.com with an aim to bridge the gap between employees and employers.

Further, GJSCI strives to set up skill centres to offer design education and promote design awareness to help meet diverse needs of the sector. The objective of such institutes is to give Jewellery manufacturers, entrepreneurs, and skilled workers training on state–of–the–art machineries & tools, design inputs, product development process etc. for the technological and design upgradation of the Jewellery Industries.

The Indian imitation jewellery market has emerged as one of the rapidly growing business segments of the country. Low cost, ingenious designs and rise in fashion among the rural and urban folk compared to original jewellery have made the business particularly popular throughout the country and as the customers today are well aware of the quality of the product want the best of the best, looking at the scope & rise of Fashion Jewellery segment, there is a huge space for Fashion jewellery courses.

About the author:

This article has been authored by Binit Bhatt, CEO, GJSCI, based on his personal experience and research.