Gem and jewellery schols for rural youth

Two Gem and Jewellery Training Courses are to be conducted for rural youth by the National Gem and Jewellery Authority (NJGA).

This will enable them find lucrative jobs and cater to the increasing demand for trained labour in the gem and jewellery sector here and abroad under a programme initiated by Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama.

The entire cost of these training courses conducted on a scholarship basis would be borne by the NGJA while the actual training would be handled by the Gem and Jewellery Research and Training Institute. The training courses will be on "Jewellery Production" and "Gem Cutting and Polishing".

The NJGA would grant a scholarship worth Rs. 20,000 to each youth following the jewellery production courses and a scholarship worth Rs. 10,000 each to youth following gem cutting and polishing.

A batch of 25 youth have already been selected for training in Jewellery and a batch of 10 have been selected for gem cutting and polishing for training courses to be launched at Eheliyagoda.

Training courses would also be started soon at Bogawantalawa and Moneragala too. Arrangements have also been made to start a one year training course in gem cutting and jewellery production at Aludeniya in Kandy.