| More than eight decades ago, India’s Father of Nation Mahatma Gandhi had said about customer, “A customer is the most important visitor on our premise. He is not dependent on us, we are dependent on him. He is not an interruption of our work; He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider to our business; He is a part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him; He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.” The global business community in the beginning did not accept Mahatma’s thoughts but today it seems, the world has agreed to the true sense of the above ‘definition’ of the customer. When it comes to the jewellery sale, it greatly requires knowing your customer and his requirements to serve him better and sale your products well. |
| Understanding the gist and importance of the jewellery sales, All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF) in association with Gem and Jewellery Skill Council of India (GJSCI) has rolled out recently the National Skill Certification and Reward Scheme branded as the STAR Scheme (Standard Training Assessment & Reward) to train sales staff of India’s jewellery retailers. Jewellery sale is a demanding service. A sales executive at the counter has to deal with large varieties of products so he should be well versed with quality of each of them. Sometimes even customers are complicated and challenging – especially when they are spending large sums on their important procurements, it is their right to know much about. It also requires a high-level of duty-awareness to keep a jewellery store running smoothly. |
| Under the scheme, GJF offers all jewellery retailers in India an enormous opportunity to upgrade the skills of their existing Retail Sales Associates (RSAs) at no cost. GJF has affiliated with the GJSCI to impart training to the jewellers’ RSAs under the Government of India’s National Skill Certification & Monetary Reward Scheme (NSCMRS). The Government of India will recompense the cost of the training of Jewellery RSAs to the trainees under this scheme. The scheme has been designed to boost skill development of youths by providing them monetary rewards on successful completion of approved training programs under NSCMRS. India has about 400,000 retail jewellery showrooms and has nearly 1.5 million individuals employed as RSAs. |
| Chairman of the GJF Mr. Haresh Soni, giving details of the scheme says, “The Star Scheme will be beneficial to 1 million Indian youths at a cost of about Rs.1,000 crores. We would ensure that this benefit is made available to entire Indian jewellery Industry at large. The scheme aims to increase productivity of the existing staff and align the training and certification to the needs of the industry. It not only provides financial reward for Skill Certification to boost employability but also productivity of youths by encouraging them for skill trainings. The Star scheme rewards every candidate who is acquiring skill training by authorized institutions at a financial reward of Rs. 10,000 to each candidate.” GJF has also plans to float this training programme for the RSAs in every Indian city. Each city will have minimum 10 batches and each batch will have 25 students. The training will be imparted by GJF which has tied up with training providers like Future Sharp, IL&FS Skill Development Corporation, LabourNet, Aptech, etc for the purpose. GJSCI has developed contents of the training which has been endorsed by representatives of the industry. |
| The training would be imparted on product domain knowledge and on selling skills. On completion of training, candidates will have to undergo the assessment test which will be undertaken by the GJSCI. Only those successful students who clear the assessment will be awarded a certificate by the GJSCI and they will be eligible for the reimbursement of the training costs under the Star scheme. GJSCI under the aegis of the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) is authorized implementing agency of the scheme. The mission of the GJF is to provide quality education to enhance the sales skills of youths to sell fine jewellery with expertise, integrity, and professionalism and to fuel the passion of those looking to learn about the jewellery industry.Posted by Suresh Chotai |
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