The Hindu Business Line : Jewellery courses offer bright career options

Course benefits
A full-time course in jewellery technology equips one to work as a bench jeweller, stone setter, designer, quality controller or a production manager
Salaries vary between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 2.5 lakh per annum

Chennai , June 22

There are rows of computers with students working on them. A closer look at the screen shows part of a necklace being designed. A jewellery design course is in progress.

Terms like `family business' and `cheap labour' are no longer synonymous with the jewellery industry. One cannot expect to see unskilled workers perched on benches, squinting at metal.

The $12 billion (Rs 55,075 crore) worth Indian jewellery industry has undergone a change and offers bright career options to qualified youth, says Ms Renu Kapoor, Director, Indian Institute of Jewellery (IIJ).

The retail jewellery boom has brought with it variety, quality and institutes offering jewellery design courses. In the past, institutes offered jewellery design as a module in their fine arts courses. Colleges such as SNDT, Mumbai, National Institute of Design, Government Arts Colleges across India and National Institute of Fashion Technology still do. They however do not teach other aspects of jewellery making like technique and fabrication.

Only few colleges such as Jewellery Design & Technology Institute, Noida and IIJ, Mumbai, offer complete courses in Jewellery technology. IIJ focuses on technique as opposed to design. "A student needs to be able to make jewellery, not merely show it on paper. This can happen only if they work with their hands from day one," says Ms Kapoor. This helps to know the limitations of metals and is essential while working on independent projects.

Industries value such training. The training period for a student gets considerably reduced if he has undergone a formal course, says Mr Balaji Vishwanathan, Marketing Head of Coimbatore-based jewellers, Kirtilals. Though most industries hire students with design skills, manufacturing related jobs are not inaccessible. Unfamiliarity with technology and lack of practical training are seen as problems while hiring youngsters for manufacturing related jobs, says Mr Vishwanathan.

Efforts are being taken to bridge this gap through shop floor visits.

More Stories on : Education | Gems & Jewellery | Tamil Nadu

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page