As the economy in China continues to grow (and grow!) the associated benefit of such a tremendous amount of economic activity is the ever growing consumerism capacity. With improved earning power, the Chinese people continue to reach out into non-traditional areas (remember when they were a communistic economy?).

The Shanghai Jiao Tong University will become the host for the very first on-campus Graduate Gemologist program being offered in China. The courses to be taught in Mandarin Chinese will begin in July 2011 at the Shanghai, China location of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Having offered lab classes in China for over a decade, with the first diamond grading lab classes being offered in Beijing in 1999, the GIA is excited about this first ever on-campus Graduate Gemologist program to be offered in China.

Expecting that the fast growing consumer markets in China will support an ever growing demand for diamonds and other precious stones and metals, the expectations for this market are up, up, and up. Enabling students to finish a Graduate Gemologist program will only help to support this growing segment in their economy. This program will support developing Graduate Gemologist at a much faster pace than the older means used of traveling lab classes in combination with distance learning.

With Shanghai regarded as being the most cosmopolitan cities in China with an exceptionally large consumer base, Seung-Hae Moon, managing Director of GIA Asia Pacific said, “The jewelry industry needs professionally trained GIA graduates, and we are committed to fostering that need.

That is the core tenant of our mission to protect the public’s trust in the jewelry throughout the world.” Developing a supply of qualified graduates capable of understanding the four C’s and able to accurately use gemological equipment to grade and identify gemstones is their first order of business.

http://www.nationaljeweler.com/nj/diamonds/all/article_detail?id=26780