A student learns to make jewelry at Egypt Gold near Cairo, capital of Egypt, on Jan. 19, 2020. Egypt Gold, the country's first jewelry school, was established in 2019 after a protocol was signed between the Ministry of Education and Egypt Gold Group, Egypt's most respected designer, manufacturer and distributor of jewelry, gold, timepieces, diamonds, and watches. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa)
CAIRO, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- In a tranquil upscale business district near Egypt's capital Cairo, students are learning how to make and design jewelry at the country's first jewelry school.
The school. named Egypt Gold, was established in 2019 after a protocol was signed between the Ministry of Education and Egypt Gold Group, Egypt's most respected designer, manufacturer and distributor of jewelry, gold, timepieces, diamonds, and watches.
The school provides the students with certified diplomas acknowledged worldwide.
"Starting this school was a dream that came true. It will save the gold and jewelry industries from decline, not only in Egypt, but also in the Middle East and Africa," Mostafa Nassar, chairman of the board of Egypt Gold Group, told Xinhua.
Nassar said the gold and jewelry industries of Egypt has been suffering from a lack of trained workforce since the 1980s, noting that the school will help solve this problem.
In 1999, Nassar started a training center in cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Social Affairs where hundreds of young people learned to make gold and jewelry.
"Some 3,500 workers graduated from the center ... the company employed 1,400 of them, while the rest have been employed in other workshops," he noted.
Nassar said that he will provide the first 600 students of Egypt Gold with small workshops where they can start their professional life, stressing he will give them raw materials "and then buy their products."
"The graduates can pay back for the workshops and equipment from the profits they make," he said. "After a few years the workshops will be their own property and they can even work for other companies if they wish."
Nassar revealed he is already on the process of negotiations with three foreign universities working in the field of jewelry and gold education to start the first university that would teach jewelry manufacturing and designing.
"Egypt is in need of academic education in such a field which will help make our country become a regional technical educational hub," Nassar revealed.
For his part, Khaled Hassan, director of Business and Enterprise Development at Egypt Gold Group, said the school applies the latest technologies in the gold industry, adding that the students will be qualified designers and makers once graduated.
Hassan noted that 200 students, 130 girls and 70 boys, are attending classes currently, revealing that the school has hired non-Egyptian jewelry experts to teach the students the latest gold-making skills.
The students, who came from different provinces across Egypt, believe that the school is a place that helps them build a good promising future in a country where unemployment rate stands at 8 percent.
Yasmin Ibrahim, from Monufia province, said she has learned much during a short period of time at the school, adding that she enjoys the experience of being a student at a technical school.
"The school will help us realize our dreams of having a job at an early age," she said as she observed a teacher drawing a design of a ring.
