Graduate Jeweler Programme
Sign up for updates on the revised GIA Graduate Jeweler programme.
Get Updates
The Graduate Jeweler diploma programme is a hands-on learning experience that prepares you for a career as a bench jeweller, and covers skills valuable for jewellery designers, CAD modellers and sales professionals.You will work with gemstones and precious metals, taking projects from castings to finished, set and polished pieces.
What You'll Learn
- Use laser-welding technology for gold, silver and platinum
- Develop essential skills, including polishing, filing, texturing, sawing, fabrication and forging techniques, stone setting and general torch skills
- Set a variety of stone shapes, including princess-cut stones, in mounting styles such as channel setting, bezel setting and prong setting, in base metals, silver, white gold, yellow gold and platinum
- Perform the most common jewellery repairs, including sizing rings, replacing prongs, repairing broken chains and installing new settings
- Apply both textured and polished finishes to jewellery surfaces on a variety of metals
- Evaluate and improve workmanship using GIA Quality Assurance Benchmarks
Topics Covered
Here are some of the topics covered in the Graduate Jeweler programme.
REPAIR
Learn how to use tools to repair jewellery.
METALWORKING
Learn the basics of metal working: soldering, finishing and more.
CRAFTSMANSHIP
Develop skills for fabrication, custom order and repair.
QUALITY CONTROL
Learn how to spot manufacturing defects and what causes them.
STONE SETTING
Learn techniques for multiple stone setting shapes and styles.
Get Started
Offered at GIA World Headquarters and The Robert Mouawad Campus in Carlsbad, CA.
Study at the GIA School On campus, full-time learning
Immerse yourself in the world of gems and jewellery and earn your Graduate Jeweler diploma by studying at a GIA campus. This transformative programme opens up a world of opportunity.
Offered at the following campusesGraduate Jeweler Tour Hands-On Bench Experience
Skills for Success
Get ready to practice essential skills in the Graduate Jeweler diploma programme – like using files and other tools to shape a ring during the stone setting process.
Three-Stone Ring
Learn fancy-shape stone setting engineering for faceted bezel, V-prong, and bar channel tapered baguette settings. Create a three-stone ring with cubic zircona, synthetic corundum or spinel, or your own gemstones.
Critique Your Work
Grab a loupe and evaluate your craftsmanship using GIA’s Quality Assurance Benchmarks. You’ll learn what makes well-made jewellery and continually grow as a bench professional.
Carved Band
Hand-craft your own half-round decorative band by practicing with bronze and brass. Learn skills like milling a half-round wire, forming a ring blank, soldering, finishing, and more.
Use Laser Welders
Get ready to work under magnification, align the crosshairs with the area to be welded and then fire hundreds of “shots” to finish the job.
Toggle Bracelet
Create a handmade chain and toggle clasp in sterling silver. Learn skills like soldering, chain assembly, forming a wire loop, fusing metal with a torch, and making a toggle clasp.
We’re Holding a Seat
Picture yourself here. It’s graduation and you’ve made a global network of friends and associates.
Hoop Earrings
Explore the plasticity of metal and form a pair of self-closing hoop earrings using brass sheet. Learn skills like forming fundamentals, how to apply a pattern, and how to create reusable templates.
What Makes it Special
Instructors with years of trade experience. Personalised attention. A workbench equipped with a high-speed micromotor, fixturing devices and soldering accessories. All of this is waiting for you in the Graduate Jeweler programme.
Mesh Chain
Measure and form interlocking links to create a mesh chain from brass wire. Learn skills like precision soldering and fitting and how to fabricate and assemble interlocking links.
High-Tech Classrooms
Magnification of your work is essential for high-quality workmanship. Your classroom comes stocked with powerful optics so you can see the details in your pieces.
Forged Ring
Learn to move metal with precise strokes of a hammer to forge the shape of this timeless ring. Skills include fabrication, sawing, and creating a peg to set a pearl or bead.
Hands-On Learning and Equipment
Learn in modern classrooms with projected instructor demonstrations and your own workstation outfitted with binocular microscopes to view the fine details.
Sister Hook
Use sterling silver to create this vintage clasp – one of the strongest and most versatile closures. Learn skills like precise sawing and filing of matching parts and joining using cold connection.
