A sparkling career option

Course specifics

Vogue Institute of Fashion Technology offers a variety of courses including a 1 year Graduate Diploma in Jewellery Designing & Manufacturing (GDJDM), 6 months’ Diploma in Jewellery Designing with CAD, 4 months’ Diploma in Diamond Grading & Identification and 4 months’ Diploma in Gemology.

Manipal Institute of Jewellery Management (MIJM), Manipal University, offers a three-year specialised degree course, Bachelor’s in Business Administration - BBA (Jewellery Design and Management). This is a professional course in which students are taught all aspects of jewellery, design, manufacturing and management. This course is divided into six semesters. Students are given both theoretical and practical training in jewellery design, gemstones and diamond testing/ grading, jewellery manufacturing and business management. During the final semester, students are sent to renowned jewellery enterprises for a six-month-on-the-job training in various aspects of jewellery business. Students are updated with the latest trends in jewellery industry by organising workshops/ seminars and guest lectures by industrial experts on various topics relevant to the industry. Students also participate in national-level jewellery exhibitions and design competitions.

"With the entry of corporates like Tata's Tanishq, Reliance Retail and Gitanjali Group into the business, there are lucrative placement opportunities for students. MIJM has achieved 100% placement for all its students," says Prof (Col) M M Shanbhag, director, MIJM.

Prospects

Graduates can work as designers with production houses, fashion jewellery designers, accessory designers and independent entrepreneurs. Says Rahul Singh, head, marketing & design development, Shree Ganesh Jewellery House, "The career growth prospects in jewellery designing are now gaining a lot of importance as all the big players in the industry are foraying into designer jewellery. Aspirants can also explore their potential with companies who are into exports and are now recruiting trained designers. A lot of designer jewellery stores and boutique stores offer customised designs, hence designers can also work inside such stores where they can directly interact with customers and help in creating customised jewellery. Jewellers abroad are recruiting designers from India as well. Designers can also work with fashion and film industries by working as assistants to bigger fashion designers giving jewellery designing solutions, as some leading designers have also branched into jewellery like Sabyasachi Mukherjee and Raghavendra Rathore. Big players in the jewellery sector offer good salary packages with perks to aspiring designers."

The jewellery sector in India is worth over US $ 16.7 billion per annum. The sector forms nearly 20% of the country's exports. "As a result of socio-economic changes, jewellery is quickly becoming a lifestyle product. As consumers become more aesthetically conscious and quality becomes standardised, design concerns emerge. Design is therefore the key element which drives demand and sales. The scale of the industry and the paucity of trained designers offer ample scope for professionals in this field. Thus, there is a huge demand for the course amongst students," opines Arindam Das, Pearl Academy of Fashion.

Choices galore

The creative aspect has a lot of overlapping functions with manufacturing. "Not every aspiring designer can translate his ideas on paper accurately as drawing is a skill. Therefore, a lot of designers use software like coreldraw and photoshop to assist their designing skills. The next step in the evolution is merchandising and product development. In a factory atmosphere, product development and business development/ merchandising are interlinked, generally handled by the same person. However, if you choose retail, then product development and merchandising automatically become two separate roles. Retail product merchandising has the added function of purchase involved in it," says Vinod Hayagriv, managing director, C Krishniah Chetty & Sons.

“After a course in jewellery manufacture and design you can be a designer for jewellery brands, quality consultants (mostly in export houses) or choose to set up your own jewellery line.  Since the entry costs are traditionally high to set up a jewellery line, most people shy away from it. But with customers being more open, you can work with not-so-expensive materials and a designer can set up his/ her line with just Rs 10,000 as capital. Currently, there are a large number of boutiques that are open to new designers where they can showcase their products to retail.
So, one need not necessarily have to set up an own store. Once the target group has been chosen, innovation is the key," advises Benaazir Muhammdunni, who owns Mood Swings Jewelry by Benaazir.