A Bridlington jewellers have scooped a top national award at a star studded event in London.
The Jewellers Academy based in the heart of Bridlington has recently been given a National Award at a glitzy ceremony held at the Hilton Metropole Hotel in London.
The award was in the category ‘Best Service Provider’ and was for training courses delivered to the UK Jewellery Industry.
Derek Boyd founder of the J.A explained: “I have been training colleagues on a small scale for over 20 years, generally one to one, but soon realised there was demand for this type of training so I took the plunge and relocated my retail jewellers to a large building in the centre of Bridlington.
“Our Jewellers Retail shop namely ‘The Workshop’ trades on the ground floor and I began the long laborious process of renovating the upper derelict floors with the idea of upscaling the training classes and creating several state of the art workshops to train in watchmaking goldsmithing, diamond setting and gemology.”
Things were held up for several years with the breakout of Covid 19, but when it was safe to launch in August 2022 the first few courses sold out within hours of publication and they have not looked back since.
Unique in its nature, The Training Centre soon attracted the attention of the UK Jewellery Industry to include tools and equipment manufacturers.
They immediately affiliated with some of the global leading equipment manufacturers to train everyone who passes through their door on the finest tools and equipment on the market.
“I was taught 30 years ago by the Swiss and always thought the same style of training would work with commercial gold/ silver smithing so I arranged the training to suit and we have now a class graduating within weeks and their transformation to a competent goldsmith is unbelievable. It’s proof the system works and has got the UK Jewellery Industry talking.” Derek said.
The winning formula for the Jewellers Academy included their very modern approach to training, flexible learning to include accessibility and inclusivity, training and mentoring program having a positive effect on the UK jewellery industry and the affiliation with the best equipment companies to include international agreements to bring the latest technology to the UK.
“Over the coming months – although we are commercially focused – we will be offering evening classes to any Hobbyists who want to have ago at silversmithing, making jewellery and learn bench skills under instruction to include learning industry knowledge.”added Derek.
For further information: www.facebook.com/ thejewellersacademy or website www.thejewellersacademy.com
