The Gem & Jewellery Skill Council of India (GJSCI) is a sector skill council established under the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), a public–private partnership body operating under India's Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. GJSCI exists to standardise vocational training, develop occupational curricula, accredit training providers, and certify workers across the full breadth of India's gem and jewellery industry — from rough-stone sorters and lapidaries to jewellery designers, bench setters, and retail sales professionals.

Mandate and Structure

India's gem and jewellery sector is one of the largest in the world by employment, supporting an estimated four to five million workers, the majority of whom have historically acquired their skills through informal apprenticeship rather than structured, credentialled training. GJSCI was created to formalise this landscape by defining National Occupational Standards (NOS) — precise, competency-based descriptions of what a qualified practitioner at each level should know and be able to do. These standards underpin both pre-employment training programmes and the recognition of prior learning (RPL) for existing artisans.

The council works in close coordination with the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), which represents the export trade, and with the Gem & Jewellery Training Institute (GJTI) network. This alignment ensures that certification frameworks reflect genuine industry requirements rather than purely academic benchmarks.

Scope of Certification

GJSCI's qualification framework spans a wide range of occupational roles, including:

• Gemstone cutting and polishing (faceting, cabochon work, and specialty cuts)
• Jewellery manufacturing — casting, fabrication, and hand-engraving
• Stone setting (prong, bezel, pavé, and channel techniques)
• Jewellery design, computer-aided design (CAD), and wax modelling
• Quality control and grading
• Retail sales and customer advisory roles

Certifications are mapped to the National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF), which assigns levels from basic operative skills through to supervisory and technical specialist grades, enabling certified workers to demonstrate portable, nationally recognised credentials.

Significance for the Trade

For an industry that exports jewellery and cut gemstones valued in the tens of billions of US dollars annually — with major manufacturing centres in Surat, Jaipur, Mumbai, and Kolkata — the consistency of craft quality is a direct commercial concern. GJSCI's accreditation of training centres and its RPL pathways provide a mechanism for raising baseline standards without displacing the traditional karigar (artisan) culture that underpins much of India's jewellery manufacturing heritage. Buyers and quality managers sourcing from Indian manufacturers increasingly regard GJSCI-certified workforces as an indicator of process discipline and skill reliability.

Relationship to Broader Gemmological Education

GJSCI occupies a distinct position from purely academic gemmological institutions such as the Gemmological Institute of America (GIA) or the Gemmological Association of Great Britain (Gem-A). Its focus is vocational and industry-facing rather than scientific or grading-laboratory oriented. Nevertheless, its curricula at higher qualification levels do incorporate gemmological knowledge — stone identification, quality assessment, and an understanding of treatments — making GJSCI certification complementary to, rather than a substitute for, formal gemmological diplomas.