• 3,598 active registered entities (manufacturing 349, wholesale 624, retail 2,556, repair 69) — of which 1,649 are sole-proprietor businesses: 46% of the trade versus 22% across all industries.
• Workforce estimate 7.8k–11.9k (mid 9.8k; sole props counted at one worker, other entities at 60–100% of official benchmarks). Annual value-added S$1,665M; estimated revenue S$21,067M.
• #1 discretionary retail category — 20.5% of discretionary retail receipts, #3 overall, and the largest weight gain of any category (+2.6pp) in the official 2025 rebasing of the Retail Sales Index.
• Exports of jewellery, gems, silverware and timepieces: S$12.5B a year (bullion excluded), of which S$4.3B Singapore-origin.
• Skills Framework coverage: zero jewellery, gemmology or watchmaking TSCs — Technical Skills and Competencies — out of 12,007 in the official dataset.
• A concrete fix is ready: twenty jewellery skills, drafted from SSG-approved course content and cross-referenced to UK national occupational standards and the WorldSkills standard, adoptable through the framework's routine quarterly update — listed in full in the annex to this brief.

• Retail 2,556 storefronts (the official Annual Services Survey counts 1,713 watches & jewellery enterprises); wholesale 624 trading entities; manufacturing 349 workshops; repair 69 specialists.
• Watches & Jewellery takes 11.6% of all retail receipts versus apparel & footwear at 10.9% — a position built over two decades: jewellery receipts grew from about S$1.7B in 2000 to S$6.1B today.
• An estimated 75% of the wholesale & retail trade workforce are local residents — family businesses, traders and jewellery professionals, with an unusually strong base of independent artisan-entrepreneurs.

• Tied with apparel in 2021 at about S$3.9B each; apparel peaked in 2023 and declined, while jewellery kept climbing — jewellery overtook apparel in 2025: S$6.1B versus S$5.7B.
• Since 2019 the category has grown 7% a year against 2% for all retail — roughly four times the pace of the retail economy.
• On the official 2025-base weights, Watches & Jewellery is #3 of all retail and #1 among discretionary categories (excluding groceries, petrol and motor vehicles) — ahead of the entire apparel & footwear category.

• Jewellery, gemstones, silverware and timepieces exports: S$12.5B a year, excluding bullion (investment gold and platinum — financial-commodity flow, not craft trade; S$24.1B a year on its own).
• S$4.3B is Singapore-origin domestic export; the balance is re-export — the entrepôt margin earned by local trading firms. Trade counts goods crossing the border; industry revenue counts only local sales.

• Retail receipts, same basis: jewellery & watches S$6.1B versus fashion & apparel S$5.7B (wholesale excluded both sides; jewellery wholesale alone adds an estimated S$15.7B).
• Human scale: performing arts employs about 6,000–7,000 (MCCY/NAC) and runs on roughly 60 dedicated TSCs; the jewellery & watch trade employs 7.8k–11.9k and has zero.
• Neighbouring trades are covered — and fashion shows what happens when coverage lapses. Hair & beauty retains 36 salon-skill TSCs in the Arts and Media costume categories; landscape holds its own 216-TSC sector; performing arts runs on roughly 60 production TSCs. Fashion's WSQ-era framework was officially designated "not transiting", so its specialised TSCs are gone — yet fashion courses still draw subsidies by tagging to generic design skills. Jewellery — bigger at retail than fashion — has never had a framework at all: zero specialised TSCs, and no tag that describes the craft honestly.

Professional competence in this trade rests on three pillars — understanding gemstones (identification, grading, valuation), design (the creative value-add, historically kept close to home), and trade practice (moving high-value goods responsibly) — alongside a wide range of fabrication and assembly methods, from factory production to artisan hand skills. Each is under-served:

• Craft capacity has drifted offshore for decades — with little public or private training attention, bench skills have aged with their holders and the skilled workforce has thinned.
• Design has no professional-level support, so a genuine Singapore strength develops informally and leaves with its practitioners.
• Specialised knowledge is traded without certification. Unlike real estate — where agency requires licensing and examination — gemstone and jewellery trading has no required standard, contributing to misrepresentation, losses and consumer risk.

• If a Jewellery SkillsFuture framework lifted value-added per worker by just 10% — consistent with international evidence on structured vocational upskilling — the gain is approximately S$166M every year on the current S$1,665M base.
• A recognised competency ladder would professionalise gemstone knowledge in trading (the consumer-protection analogue of real-estate licensing), retain design value-add in Singapore, give fabrication methods a documented succession path, and back the trade's 1,649 independent businesses, whose skills today have no formal recognition.

The official dataset (Q3-2026) lists 12,007 TSCs across 41 sector entries — 33 industry sectors plus 8 cross-sector skill sets, grouped by SSG into roughly 27 industry frameworks. None is jewellery, gemmology or watchmaking. To test whether the existing skills could nonetheless cover the trade, all 28 programmes of Singapore's specialist jewellery school (JDMIS) were audited: each course was mapped to its single nearest TSC, and the course's taught content compared line by line against that TSC's official Knowledge-and-Ability items. Not one course maps cleanly.

• The fit bands, with their numbers: 7 courses are incomplete (roughly 60–80% of content covered — chiefly the business, retail and marketing courses); 8 are weak (about 50%, mostly design); 11 are tenuous (25–45%, the craft and digital-production core); and 2 — the advanced metalsmithing courses — have no defensible tag at all. The pattern is systematic: the more jewellery-specific the course, the worse the fit.
• What that looks like in practice: four hand-design specialisations reduce to one generic "Design Sketching" TSC plus a technical-drawing TSC that prescribes CAD software. Metalsmithing — forming, annealing, alloying, soldering, riveting, four kinds of polishing, stone setting — lands on "Metal Forming" or "Material Joining": industrial skills written for marine and aerospace work, at about a 30% match. Casting maps to nothing (the framework's only "Casting" TSCs are film talent-audition skills). Gemmology maps to nothing (nearest: one generic retail product-knowledge skill). Fashion jewellery lands on theatrical costume skills.
• Why the mapping matters for funding: course-fee funding requires at least half a course's skills to appear on the Course Approval Skills List. At 50–80% coverage, the best mappings only just clear that bar — for the business courses. The craft core cannot clear it at all.
• Where to verify: the full audit — all 28 courses, each with its nearest TSC, that TSC's sector, the fit band and the K&A coverage percentage — is published in the framework section of the dashboard ("Skills framework & TSC coverage").
• The UK maintains a dedicated jewellery standards suite — metallurgy, finishing, CAD/CAM, a recognised occupation, WorldSkills — so the trade is internationally standardisable; the gap is local. Without a framework there is no dedicated CET centre and no WSQ pathway.

• The Jewellery sector has no framework - but change need not immediately target a full sector framework — a routine list update could add critical skills to activate support of the jewellery trade. We have drafted twenty jewellery skills across five tracks — gemmology and materials; design; digital design and production; fabrication; and business and trade — spanning gemstone identification and stone setting, casting and metal clay, hand design and CAD, through to valuation, marketing and high-value retail operations. They are listed in the annex to this brief.
• Drafted from delivered course content. Every skill is drawn from the content of courses SSG approved and funded in 2021–2024, and each is cross-referenced to international standards: the UK's national occupational standards for jewellery, silversmithing and allied trades; the WorldSkills jewellery standard, where fabrication alone carries a thirty percent weighting; and the recognised UK occupation covering setters, mounters, polishers and CAD operators.
• Skills must be added to the CASL. Course-fee funding requires at least half a course's skills to appear on the Course Approval Skills List, which admits skills for growth jobs with genuine manpower need and no over-supply from existing funded courses. The funded supply of jewellery skills today is zero and there are many jewellery companies writing to evicence demand.
• The mechanism has precedents. Carbon Services and Trading entered the framework with thirty skills. Today a sewing school runs four subsidised courses on a single generic design skill, and a private beauty academy runs a twelve-hundred-hour diploma on a generic service skill. The same mechanism already funds neighbouring trades' providers; it simply contains no jewellery skills.
• Teaching stays project-based. Courses remain exactly as delivered — integrated, project-based. The skills are the vocabulary those projects are recognised against, with proficiency levels carrying progression from foundation to master.
• The same twenty skills form a stackable pathway. Arranged with proficiency levels, they become the rungs of a ladder: enter with a single module — as a new hire, a career switcher, or a working owner-operator — and build toward certificate, diploma and advanced diploma in whatever order the business demands: business skills first, craft depth later, or the reverse. Adults learn while working; the modular route is how a sole proprietor becomes a certified professional without leaving the counter. The trade offers no such option — zero jewellery job roles, zero pathway, and the only WSQ jewellery course ever created (by JDMIS in 2014) was an eighty-hour single-track design monolythic Integrated Competency module (large and long to to solve mapping restrictions - not based on JDMIS structure employer or learner demand.)

The twenty skills are listed in the annex at the end of this brief. JDMIS is happy to work with SWDA on a skill-by-skill draft with knowledge-and-ability items and international cross-references, but has limited resourses and will require SWDA involvement during development to ensure available resources are deployed productively.

We ask that SWDA review and consider a multi-skill jewellery family in the framework, and flag the craft core for the Course Approval Skills List — co-developed with JDMIS and the trade associations, drawing on the ready-made international standards. This single update opens the standard funding door for current and new jewellery training providers in Singapore. With assistance from SDWA to ensure efficient submissions, the school's TP statis can be restored (its contract was ended without notice for 'inactivity' because of the lack of framework to map to) and its existing programmes mapped to these skills.

Further, we ask SWDA consider these courses be arranged as a stackable pathway as they have been delivered by JDMIS for 18 years — entry modules through to advanced diploma, with job roles to progress through — it gives working adults, new entrants and owner-operators somewhere to start and somewhere to go, which today does not exist. A national pathwar would also benefit the training ecosystem allowing high levels of provider specialisation and a full CET centre for the industry. A full sector framework can be considered following industry adoption. Any implementations must be sure to be inclusive of the large number of owner-operators and micro-enterprises that are prevalent in the jewellery industry.

JDMIS and the industry's employer network stand ready to support development and delivery.

Reference is made to JDMIS's letter of 1 September 2026 (JDMIS/MOS-FC/2026-01) and its annexes. In brief, the record on the ground is strong: eighteen years of specialist delivery; 8,041 skills certifications issued to 3,484 people, including staff of 250+ Singapore jewellery companies; a mid-2024 SkillsFuture trainee-feedback snapshot of 317 ratings at 4.4/5 — higher in number and score than the fashion and jewellery providers then on the platform — alongside 6,825 public reviews averaging 4.8/5; an SSG audit in 2024 with no adverse observations and no learner complaints; and graduates who have established more than 170 jewellery businesses, with 300+ career changers entering the trade. When support existed (2021–2024, championed by MOS Low Yen Ling), modular enrolment roughly doubled — from about 400 to nearly 1,000 a year — and employers and individuals wrote to the agencies in support: 50 employers in 2017, a 238-signatory petition of thanks in 2022.

That support was withdrawn on framework-tagging grounds — not on quality grounds. The lesson this record points to is not about one school: excellence on the ground has been demonstrated, and on its own it has not produced structural change within the agencies. What the trade needs now is direction from the right parts of government: a framework the agencies can see, employers can use, and Singaporeans can progress through.

Five tracks, twenty skills. Descriptions are verb-first in SSG style; proficiency levels (PL) follow SSG's six-level scale. Each skill is drawn from SSG-approved course content and cross-referenced to the UK national occupational standards, the WorldSkills jewellery standard and the recognised UK occupation. Knowledge-and-ability items for every skill are in the technical annex for SSG and SWDA.

Track A — Gemmology and Materials

• A1 · Apply Gemstone and Pearl Knowledge in Trade Practice (PL2–5) — Apply knowledge of gemstone varieties, origins, value factors and trade practices to buying, selling, design and customer advisory.
• A2 · Conduct Gemstone Identification and Verification (PL2–5) — Examine gemstones with professional gemmological equipment to identify materials and separate naturals, synthetics, imitations and assembled stones.
• A3 · Apply Precious Metal and Alloy Practices to Jewellery Work (PL1–5) — Apply knowledge of precious metal properties, alloys, solders and heat processes to produce sound jewellery and metalwork.

Track B — Design

• B1 · Create Jewellery Designs through Sketching (PL1–4) — Develop jewellery design ideas through creative sketching and draughting in accurate multi-view representation.
• B2 · Produce Jewellery Technical Drawings and Counter Sketches (PL2–4) — Produce accurate technical drawings for manufacture and fast counter sketches for customers, with cost awareness.
• B3 · Render and Present Jewellery Designs (PL2–5) — Render jewellery designs with light, shadow and colour to presentation standard, and present designs commercially.
• B4 · Analyse Jewellery Trends and Aesthetics (PL2–4) — Analyse historical, contemporary and forecast trends to define a personal or house aesthetic and inform commercial collections.

Track C — Digital Design and Production

• C1 · Design Jewellery Using 3D CAD (PL2–5) — Create accurate 3D jewellery models with gemstone settings using industry-standard CAD tools; produce renderings for customers and portfolios.
• C2 · Prepare Jewellery Designs for Digital Prototyping and Production (PL3–5) — Take designs through advanced modelling and file preparation for rapid prototyping and error-free 3D printing, across 3D platforms.

Track D — Fabrication

• D1 · Perform Jewellery Bench Foundations (PL1–4) — Perform foundational bench work — sawing, piercing, filing, soldering, annealing, pickling — safely and to standard.
• D2 · Form Jewellery Components and Mechanisms (PL2–5) — Form components from sheet and wire and construct functioning mechanisms — hinges, clasps, rivets, cold connections.
• D3 · Set Gemstones in Jewellery (PL2–5) — Set gemstones using a range of techniques appropriate to stone type, design and wear — bezel, prong, flush, thread, channel, pavé.
• D4 · Produce Jewellery Castings (PL2–5) — Produce castings by the lost-wax process, from wax production through investing and casting calculations to clean-up.
• D5 · Finish and Polish Jewellery to Commercial Standard (PL1–4) — Finish and polish components and completed pieces to commercial quality, minimising metal loss.
• D6 · Repair, Size and Service Jewellery (PL2–4) — Repair, size and service jewellery, including re-tipping and stone-security checks.
• D7 · Create Jewellery with Metal Clays and Powder Metallurgy (PL2–5) — Produce jewellery using precious-metal clays and powder-metallurgy techniques, including firing, finishing and mixed-metal work.
• D8 · Fabricate Fashion Jewellery Assemblies (PL1–4) — Fabricate fashion jewellery using professional stringing, wire-working, weaving and mixed-media assembly techniques to saleable standard.

Track E — Business and Trade

• E1 · Value, Cost and Price Jewellery (PL2–4) — Determine gem and metal costs, estimate and price designs, and apply valuation principles in trade practice.
• E2 · Develop Jewellery Marketing and Brands (PL2–4) — Develop and execute marketing and brand strategy for jewellery businesses, from positioning to channels.
• E3 · Merchandise and Operate Jewellery Retail (PL2–4) — Plan merchandising across storefront, catalogue and online channels; operate high-value inventory and security to trade standard.