Since 2024 there has been no government funding for professional jewellery training in Singapore. The schemes were withdrawn entirely by the agency without providing any responsible means to deliver specialist training unther the latest Skills Framework (0 out of over 12,000 skills cover jewellery.) A byproduct of this is that your own SkillsFuture Credit and PSEA funds can only be used at government-run institutions or currently funded programmes, and no professional jewellery education from any specialized provider is on that list. This page sets out what ended, what you can still use, and why we are not accepting it quietly.
Many readers arrive here from our OWN course emails, expecting the funding tables we published up to 2024, explaining in detail how Singaporeans could use their SkillsFuture Credits to support lifelong learning, how new entrants to our industry could use their PSEA funds, and how companies and individuals could make use of SkillsFuture Grants to get up to 70% grant support for their course fees. Those tables are gone - today there is no government support for industry-level training by any professional jewellery educational provider in Singapore.
What ended in 2024
Before August 2024, 28 JDMIS professional certificate courses carried SkillsFuture funding worth 50 to 70 per cent of fees, and JDMIS managed thousands of grants and claims professionally and with clean audits for students who used these professional skills to enter the trade. All of it was withdrawn. A Singaporean who today wants professional training in jewellery design, fabrication or gemmology has one option: PAY UPFRONT AND IN FULL.
The credits sitting in your MySkillsFuture account have not disappeared. They are locked to a majority of programmes you do not want or need if you are pursuing a career in jewellery, and the official course directory decides what counts. Search it for jewellery. Depending on the year you will find a few short hobby courses unsuitable for professionals, or nothing at all.
The industry the rules ignore
More retail dollars go to watches and jewellery than to any other discretionary category in Singapore. In 2025 the category grew faster than every other retail segment, posting an 11 per cent year-on-year jump in August alone in the Department of Statistics' retail sales index, and it has kept growing at around ten per cent through 2026.
The trade turns over roughly S$6 billion a year across some 3,600 businesses employing just under 10,000 people. Benchmarked to official statistics, it generates about S$170,000 of value added per worker. Retail as a whole manages S$58,000. Hair and beauty, an industry with its own national skills framework and generously funded training, manages only S$20,000. Precision engineering, the usual example of the highest-value industry, generates an equivalent S$230,000 value-add per worker. Jewellery works in that league and receives none of the recognition. The working behind these figures is open to inspection on our industry insights page.
About a third of those sales, by our estimate on Singapore Tourism Board data, are made to international visitors. For them, jewellery and watches are among the signature purchases of a trip here, and every piece they carry home is a small piece of Singapore's reputation.
Then there is the Skills Framework itself. It lists 12,007 training standards and certifications across 41 sectors. A keyword sweep of every title and description for jewellery, gemmology, goldsmithing, silversmithing, lapidary and horology returns nothing. Theatre production holds 254 standards. Retail holds 630. Jewellery holds zero.
Professionals are licensed to sell a house, talk to a tourist, recommend an investment - but not a diamond
Singapore licenses areas where it wants to protect its people and its reputation. Recommending a S$1,000 investment requires a licence under the Financial Advisers Act. Showing a client a house requires registration with the Council for Estate Agencies. Guiding tourists for a living requires a tourist guide licence. The principle is sound: when money and trust change hands, trained and accountable professionals should be the ones holding them.
Now walk into a jewellery store. The person across the counter can advise on, sell, repair and appraise pieces worth more than the flat the agent down the road is licensed to show. They handle the country's reputation with millions of visitors, and goods with more intrinsic value than most consumer investments. The same system that licenses all three of those professions has decided that professional qualifications in this one is unnecessary, to the point that its skills framework holds not a single training standard for it.
What you can still use
- NOTHING - not SkillsFuture Credits, not SkillsFuture Grants, not SkillsFuture Enterprise Credits, not PSEA Funds, not UTAP or anything else linked to the national system that has decided to exclude the jewellery industry.
We are petitioning for the return of funded, flexible, professional jewellery education, and for a place for this trade in the national skills framework alongside every other industry of its weight.
Straight answers
Can I use SkillsFuture Credit at JDMIS?
No. No JDMIS course has been claimable since funding ended in 2024, and any claim submitted for one will be rejected.
Can I use SkillsFuture Credit for Professional Jewellery Training?
No. No specialised provider in Singapore provided funded training because the National Skills Framework inclused no jewellery skills amongst its 12,000 listings. Special exemptions to allow for profesisonal training outside of the National Skills Framework were withdrawn in 2024 with no solution provided to support the industry.
Can I use PSEA for jewellery courses?
Not with us. PSEA is accepted only at government-run institutions and funded programmes.
Is any jewellery training still funded in Singapore?
The claimable list changes, so check the MySkillsFuture directory. As of November 2026 there is nothing at professional level and nothing flexible enough for working adults - Some extra-curricular and hobby courses from government schools and communicty centres sometimes appear in the catalogue. These are fun, creative and worthwhile but are no substitute for professional training.
What is JDMIS doing about it?
JDMIS has, with the support of all the national trade associations and letters from over 100 employers, has approached the Minister of State for Manpower and Minister of State for Trade and Industry to escalate this absurd gap in our nation's development and stewardship of the industry. You can share your view by petitioning for the return of funded professional training, and building the industry case in the open on our industry insights page. You can add your name at jdmis.edu.sg/support/sign.
Will this make any difference?
Efforts to speak directly with the overseeing agency are not receiving adequate responses. With the support of employers, trade associations and individuals it is possible that the government agencies find and empower an agency champion for Jewellery, but this is not something that has happened yet, despite multiple and repeated escalation efforts. With more support behind this initiative, it is possible we may eventually garner the attention this industry deserves from the agencies in charge of its development.
Related: Upcoming Classes · Fine Jewellery Design Diploma · Jewellery & Watch Industry Insight