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GradingOct 02, 2019
Gemewizard Now Offers Online Education
The Gem Color Academy has kicked off with a colored stone grading course.
A screenshot from Gem Color Academy’s inaugural Colored Stones Grading Course
Ramat Gan, Israel—Gemewizard, which provides digital solutions for the analysis, description, pricing and trading of color in gemstones and colored diamonds, has launched a new educational arm.
The Gem Color Academy will provide professional-level knowledge and experience for the gem and jewelry industry.
Guy Borenstein, vice president and chief academic officer, said the company wanted to offer courses that gives the students “the extra mile they lack and almost always need in order to properly (and successfully) play in the real trade,” complimenting other gemological education by providing “added value in order to understand the market language and its know-how secrets.”
To launch, the academy has introduced a distance education course dedicated to colored gemstone grading.
Drawing from the company’s founders’ more than 40 years of gemological experience, the online course provides students with an in-depth understanding about the grading, evaluation and pricing of gems.
The Colored Stones Grading Course ($1,000) examines issues related to color, clarity, cut, geographical origin, treatments, optical phenomena and other attributes that define their quality and determine their value.
It focuses on the gemstones most commonly handled in the trade gem, including ruby, emerald, sapphire, aquamarine, alexandrite, garnet, spinel, tanzanite and tourmaline.
Students will be able to access hundreds of gem images and numerous educational videos online and participate in more than 100 interactive exercises in sorting, grading and pricing of gems, using digital master rulers.
The course also puts a strong emphasis on hands-on practice. Gemewizard will provide students with a mailed kit comprising 25 gem samples accurately depicting the most important shades in the colored gemstone range and a comprehensive set of Colored Stones Grading course notes.
Students are assigned to a specific class with its own teacher—experienced gemologists and educators—who assist them for the entire duration of the course, answering questions, checking assignments and examinations, and monitoring progress.
They also can communicate with colleagues in the class to swap insights, experience and knowledge.
“The goal we set ourselves in developing the course was that it should bridge the gap between theoretical gemology and commercial reality, where sometimes subtle variances in gem properties translate into substantial differences in value,” said Menahem Sevdermish, president of Gemewizard and a founder of the Gem Color Academy.
“Professionals need to understand how color is derived and how it should be measured and defined in a wide variety of gemstones, and how that, together
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with other properties, impacts real-time value in the marketplace. Graduates of the academy will be provided with a knowledge base that is widely sought after in our industry.”
Students will receive a one-year subscription to the full suite of Gemewizard products, including GemePrice, an online pricing system and price list for gemstones and diamonds.
A Colored Diamonds Grading Course will launch next month. The Gem Color Academy will announce other new courses soon.
Borenstein told National Jeweler the Gem Color Academy is also in the process of signing agreements with colleges around the world to offer these courses in an on-site class format and in other languages, such as Spanish and French.
The first agreement with a college in South Africa will be announced soon. Other colleges in the U.S., Europe and Asia are in the agreement finalization step and will be announced in the following weeks.
For more information or to enroll, visit GemColorAcademy.com.
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