The jewellery industry of China has been developed steadily in recent years. In 2017, the gold consumption in the country was 1,089.1 tonnes, ranked first in the globe for five consecutive years along with a 600 billion yuan annual jewellery sales, reflecting the growing demand of jewellery.
Sun Fengmin, deputy director of National Gemstone Testing Center (NGTC) and executive vice president of the Gems & Jewelry Trade Association of China (GAC) indicated that the potential of the development of China’s jewellery industry is enormous; and there are diversified jewellery market demands for more jewellery design and marketing elites. Currently, there are nearly three million local jewellery practitioners. However, jewellery professional training in China is inadequate as there are only less than three percent of them have relevant academic qualifications, and less than 250,000 of them have received professional training.
Path to professional
NGTC has been promoting jewellery professional training in China. It has set up three jewellery vocational education sections including Gemological Institute, Design Institute and Business Institute, offering programmes such as China General Certification Center (CGC) Registered Jewellery & Jade Quality Inspector Pre-Exam programme, GAC Gem Appraisers Pre-Exam programme, etc. The gemmological section is divided into four professional directions: coloured gemstones, diamonds, fei cui and organic gemstones. Design Institute provides both modern jewellery design programmes like electrographic design and traditional Chinese craftsmanship programmes, namely the filigree craftsmanship. Business Institute focuses on jewellery business management, e-commerce, jewellery investment management, etc. The training programmes mentioned fulfill the purpose of the centre “market-oriented, demand-centered and supported by professionals”.
Sun said at the exhibitor forum themed ‘Stimulate Consumption, Facilitate a Prosperous Development in the Industry’ during the Hong Kong International Jewellery Show: “NGTC has trained nearly 40,000 professionals like corporate executives, senior managers, jewellery marketing experts, designers, jewellery appraisers and craftsmen, etc. We organise over 200 gem identification, grading and assessment, jewellery design and processing and jewellery marketing trainings each year for the industry. We are now the official professional jewellery industry training agency of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MOHRSS) in China. ”
To be in line with international standards, NGTC has cooperated with various renowned educational and scientific research institutions like the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), Gemmological Association of Great Britain (Gem-A), HRD Antwerp, Swiss Ancient Gemological Laboratory (GGL), Gemological Institute of Thailand (GIT) and Asian Institute of Gemological Sciences (AIGS). The centre is the only partner of GIA in China which has organised numerous training courses, for instance, the GIA Research Gemologist (GG) certificate course.
For the future development of NGTC, Sun said: “NGTC will carry out a variety of jewellery professional trainings and establish cooperation with large companies and professional organisations.”
In collaboration with NGTC, GAC held an afternoon sharing session on ‘new retailing, new marketing and new talent’ on 10 May 2018 at Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center. Top executives from industry associations, institutes and enterprises were invited to share their insights and tips for establishing standards for new talents, the context of new retailing in future, innovative marketing ideas in the new retailing era, sharing economy in jewellery, data thinking for enterprise development, etc. The event was co-organised by the Shanghai Gems & Jade Exchange,the Shanghai Gold & Jewellery Trade Association,and Gems & Jade Trade Association of Shanghai.
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