The Gem and Jewellery Institute (GJI) came in to existence, with the handing over of

the Lapidary training Centre managed by the Sri Lanka Export Development Board
(SLEDB) to the Sri Lanka Gem and Jewellery Association (SLGJA)- (formerly
known as the Sri Lanka Jewellery Manufacturing Exporters Association).

The institute commenced its operations on May 1st 2002. The courses offered were
Jewel CAD, Jewellery and Lapidary. A study later revealed that the industry lacks
trainer training programs, advanced technical training and Hi Tech services and hence
GJI undertook to concentrate on those areas.

In April 2005 the course fee sponsorship scheme designed by SLEDB came in to
effect. The idea of the program was to develop the competence of staff attached to
manufacturing exporters. The arrangement was that the SLEDB would bear 75% of
the course fee of three training courses conducted by the institute while the qualifying
company would pay 25% to the institute.

Due to a policy decision of the Ministry of Enterprise Development and Investment

Promotion, SLEDB was requested to transfer the scheme to be implemented by the
National Gem and Jewellery Authority (NGJA) in early 2006.

Though GJI wanted to serve the industry, from the experience of past 8 years it has
come to realise that the required demand is not available in the country for such
programs. Participation in career fairs, paper advertisements, free one day workshops
have ended up in little or no enrolments for its courses.

Possible reasons:
1. School leavers now a days do not aspire to get in to blue collar jobs like gem
cutting
2. For the few who line up for such programs GJI has to compete with the
government institutions which offer these courses free of charge / lower prices
3. The mechanism which was introduced for students from low income families to
undergo training at GJI for an affordable rate was not successful as most of the
lapidaries do not pay them enough. The students were allowed to complete the
course for Rs 5000/- and then were asked to work in a lapidary company for 15
months during which the company is supposed to contribute Rs 1000/- a month
along with a matching contribution from the student for 12 months from the 4th
month. But couldn’t retain the students in the companies as the salaries were not
attractive
4. For those who aspire to get in to the managerial levels – not many openings in the
trade.
5. Reluctance of the industry to invest on training – this was evident from the
precious metal refining course which was organised recently. Apart from those
who are already in the Ex Co the outside companies didn’t want to take part in the
program as it was considered too costly.

GJI wanted to affiliate with edexcel in order to provide intentionally recognised

certificates for the students but taking the cost factor in to consideration with the
prevailing low demand for the courses GJI decided to pause the effort.
The attempts to affiliate with local institutions like the Tertiary Vocational Education
Commission (TVEC) and the University of Vocational and Technical Training
(UNIVOTEC) didn’t work due to various reasons.

Taking all these factors in to consideration and specially the low demand for the
courses, the EX CO of GJI decided to suggest a closure.