Firms have associations. Professionals have a Guild.
The Guild of Jewellery Professionals and Artisans is Singapore's professional body for the people of the jewellery trade — the designers, artisans, gemmologists, sales professionals, managers and owner-operators that the industry is actually made of. This is our story.
Why a guild
The Singapore trade has always had strong institutions — for firms. The shops, chains and wholesalers have their association; the diamond traders have their exchange. But the people — the woman sizing rings at the bench, the gemmologist grading stones, the counter professional selling a five-figure piece on a Saturday — had no professional home, no standard to be measured against, and no credential that travelled beyond their last employer's word.
The Guild examines, the register proves, and each institution keeps its own say over the standards that govern its people. The reconstituted Guild, 2026
GJPA exists to be that missing layer: a professional guild that sets standards, examines against them, and publishes the results on a public register anyone can check in seconds.
What the Guild stood for — and stands for again
The society's founding aims, carried forward into the reconstitution:
- Educate members of the trade, professional artisans and amateurs in the importance of superior jewellery fabrication techniques, material quality and business ethics.
- Promote and reinforce quality and ethical standards for the education, fabrication and sale of jewellery.
- Distinguish members — a reputation built on the Guild's standards, so a credential means something to employers, suppliers and customers.
- Build the community — a home for jewellery professionals and aficionados with international interest and accessibility.
- Foster co-operation and the sharing of information and experience among professionals of different approaches and specialities.
- Promote public awareness of the professions of jewellery design and fabrication.
Standards
Open syllabi, independent assessment, and credentials that lapse when standing lapses — so the badge always means what it says.
Education
The Guild examines; it does not teach. Anyone may teach against the open syllabus — and learning is recognised wherever it happens.
Community
Every level of the craft in one guild: bench, counter, loupe and ledger. The trade's families, not just its firms.
The reawakening
Singapore's trade changed between 2007 and 2026. The anti-money-laundering regime now reaches every counter; lab-grown stones rewrote disclosure; the industry's skills gap became a national conversation. What never arrived was a professional layer for the people who face all of it daily.
The reconstituted Guild keeps the 2007 constitution's soul — standards, education, community — and adds what 2026 demands:
- Assessment-only certification — the Guild examines against open syllabi; it never bundles a course with a credential, and the register is always buyable without a class.
- A public register — every issued credential verifiable by certificate number or name, free, in seconds. Unverifiable claims are the trade's quiet problem; this is the answer.
- Institutional seats — the trade's associations, exchanges, schools and major firms hold seats in the Guild's council, each with its own say over the standards that govern its people.
- The AML Compliance Hub — a plain-English lifeline for precious-stone and metal dealers under the PSPM regime, and certified training for the people the law holds responsible. Open the Hub →
The founder
The Guild was conceived by Tanja M. Sadow, G.J.G. — jeweller, gemmologist (GIA, 1983), jewellery designer and instructor, and a trendsetter in Singapore's designer-jewellery scene for over three decades. Her frustration with the quality and reputation of designer jewellery in the region — and her conviction that the people of the trade deserved standards of their own — is the Guild's founding document in miniature.
She serves as the Guild's president. The Guild is hosted at JDMIS — the Jewellery Design & Management International School, 91 Bencoolen Street, Sunshine Plaza, with which it shares a standards mission and an arm's-length relationship: the Guild examines; the school teaches.
