Class Character

Class Character is a platform for faculty of Canadian Jewellery programs to share the victories of their graduating students and open the doors of their respective departments to the MetalAid community. This is an ongoing, annual project.  If you would like to see your school featured in future editions of Class Character, please contact us for submission guidelines and details.

Compiled by: The MetalAid Team
Published: 2019/07/12

George Brown college
TORONTO, ONTARIO

The School of Fashion and Jewellery at George Brown College (GBC) has had another successful year with record enrolment of nearly 200 full-time students across our 4 programs. Over 30% of our student body are now international students coming from across the globe to study at North America’s largest school for jewellery and gemmology training.

The 3-year Jewellery Arts (JA) program culminated with year-end exhibitions at two venues: TIFF Shop and Craft Ontario Shop. The students in this year’s graduating class were particularly involved in their internship placements and showed strong community engagement with thelocal jewellery industry. We are very thankful for the local jewellery industry who sponsored over $20K in student awards and provided 30+ industry work placements for our students.

Students continue to use more digital skills in combination with the traditional goldsmithing training and technical strength that GBC is so well known for. The multicultural nature of our student body is reflected in the inspirations and themes explored in their jewellery collections. Precious metals and gemstones are predominant though small batch production work often uses alternative materials and CAD/CAM. To support this, we continue to expand our digital facilities- adding 4 new 3D printers, and three courses/levels of Rhino software training.

Exciting new partnerships are now established with international universities, including the School of Jewellery at Birmingham City University (BCU) and KEA Copenhagen School of Design & Technology. Two of our 2nd year students spent a semester on exchange at KEA Copenhagen while GBC hosted two Danish students from KEA. Beginning in 2019 graduates from our diploma programs may apply to BCU’s Jewellery Design for Industry program and complete a BA degree in only one year. Our gemmology graduates can also apply to BCU to gain advance standing and complete a BSc degree in gemmology in two years.

Paul McClure, Coordinator and Professor, George Brown College Jewellery School