Jewellery Design and Manufacturing

Learn comprehensive jewellery-making skills, from in-depth manufacturing techniques and design to entrepreneurship. 

BAJ’s Jewellery Design and Manufacturing Diploma is an exciting and broad-ranging programme that will provide you with a comprehensive skill set enabling you to design and make jewellery, set up your own business and prepare you for employment in the jewellery industry. It is a flexible study programme of up to two years, which follows on from our introductory year, Jewellery Fundamentals.

Combining hands-on technical training in the workshop with in-depth design projects and focused entrepreneurship training, the diploma course offers a dynamic and varied learning experience preparing you for the multifaceted world of jewellery making.

Supported by BAJ’s expert tutors, as well as a range of other industry specialists and professional jewellers, the course develops learners into versatile creators, giving them the opportunity to develop their unique aesthetic voice, to perfect their technical skills and to understand how to operate in the jewellery industry as independent professionals.

  • Level: L4 and L5 Diploma in Jewellery Design & Manufacturing
  • Awarding body: SQA
  • Duration: 10 months per level
  • Study mode: Blended learning
  • Location: No longer accepting applicants
  • Tuition fee: No longer accepting applicants
  • Next start date: No longer accepting applicants
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Course overview

Our diploma has a flexible duration of up to 2 years. The programme offers multiple exit points as well as possible entry directly into the second or third year of the diploma depending on previous experience. Our Jewellery Design and Manufacturing diploma has a flexible duration of up to 2 years. The level 4 can be exited after the initial 10 month programme or followed by level 5. Depending on experience, entry is possible to our level 3 jewellery fundamentals diploma as well as directly into our level 4 or 5 diplomas.

Click here to see some of the work by our students

Entry requirements

Level 4:
BAJ’s L3 Jewellery Fundamentals Diploma, or proof of equivalent qualification. A bench test and portfolio review may be required.

Level 5:
BAJ’s L4 Jewellery Design and Manufacturing Diploma, or proof of equivalent qualification. A bench test and portfolio review may be required.

Fees & funding

The course can be privately funded, co-funded, or funded through Advanced Learner Loan. Full bursaries may be available for 16-18 years based in London, subject to availability and eligibility. Funding may also be available for learners ages 19 and up via the Advanced Learner Loan. To find out if you are eligible, please contact our recruitment team. £6421 per level For learners eligible for the Advanced Learner Loan. £6921 per level For learners not eligible for the Advanced Learner Loan, this includes international students.

What you will learn

Jewellery Manufacturing

2D Design

CAD/CAM

Professional Studies

Careers and progression

Each year of the course serves as a path into the next, subject to the fulfilment of progression requirements.

Students receive a qualification at the end of each year, meaning a learner could choose to exit after completing level 4, which will open up different professional opportunities, or continue onto the level 5 diploma.

The practical aspects of the programme prepare students for career paths as jewellery designers, jobbing jewellers, goldsmiths and silversmiths, with each completed year helping to build a more comprehensive technical skill set. The diploma programme also includes modules concerning critical thinking, presentation and marketing skills, making it ideal for anyone wishing to start their own jewellery business.

Next steps

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81-84 Chalk Farm Rd, Chalk Farm,
London NW1 8AR

London, Camden London, Euston Birmingham, Jewellery Quarter Birmingham, Mill Wharf Leicester Sheffield Nottingham

Telephone: +44 (0)20 7405 0197
Company Registration Number:
05992037

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Jewellery Manufacturing

Year 1 – Level 4

Application of jewellery techniques learnt on the level 3 jewellery fundamentals diploma or equivalent for the production of specific pieces of jewellery and learning of more advanced jewellery-making techniques:

  • Precise soldering and construction of complex forms
  • Introduction to forging
  • Creating professional stone mounts for setting
  • Hand making a clasp, a hinge, mechanisms and linkages
  • Creating mechanical joins
  • Further knowledge of the casting process and metallurgy
  • Masterclasses in specialist techniques, for example: stone setting; will support this.

Year 2 – Level 5

  • Advanced forming skills
  • Advanced soldering skills
  • Understanding of experimental jewellery techniques
  • Ability to experiment with jewellery techniques
  • Production of hollow forms
  • Brooch mechanisms

2D Design

Year 1 – Level 4

  • Ability to apply design process in response to design brief 
  • Choose, prepare and apply appropriate presentation skills to communicate ideas
  • Extending the application of elements and principles of design
  • Exploring different materials for maquette making
  • Designing mechanical linked components for production
  • Technical drawing: isometric and further orthographic drawing

Year 2 – Level 5

  • Professional drawing and design development skills
  • Production of innovative jewellery designs in conjunction with set parameters as specified in the design brief in relation to industry
  • Application of effective and appropriate communication skills and tools to professionally present work

CAD/CAM

Year 1 – Level 4

  • Use of Rhino 3D to create both 2D and 3D designs appropriate in the jewellery industry
  • Use of curves and bitmaps for 2D drawings for production
  • Use basic solids and transform commands to create simple objects
  • Use and apply the big 6 commands to form 3D models for casting

Year 2 – Level 5

  • Advanced Computer Aided Design (CAD) skills
  • Ability to design for and apply Computer Aided Manufacturing techniques innovatively

Professional Studies

Year 1 – Level 4

  • Introduction to gemstones and their properties
  • Understanding professional practice within the jewellery industry.
  • Learning to network and develop contacts in the industry
  • Refine development of own career path through a mentoring scheme 
  • Developed knowledge of jewellery history through learning and applying cultural jewellery techniques e.g. filigree, granulation
  • Application of metallurgy concepts

Year 2 – Level 5

  • Business market research skills
  • Understanding of the environmental and social impact of work
  • Identify, read and critically evaluate material related to own research interests in jewellery
  • Intermediate gemmology knowledge with the opportunity to use professional gemmology equipment
  • Development of a personal professional development plan identifying areas and opportunities for continuous expansion

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Study at BAJ

Further Education
Level 3 Diploma in Jewellery Design and Manufacturing
Level 3 Apprenticenship in Jewellery
Diploma in Business

Study at BAJ

Higher Education
BA (Hons) Jewellery Design & Production
HNC Art & Design 3D Design (Jewellery Design and Manufacturing)
HND Digital Technologies: Digital Communications
HND in Business: Marketing
HND in Business: Entrepreneurship
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