The 7 best jewelry and goldsmith schools in the world

Around the world, a few schools have managed to preserve the precision and discipline of traditional craftsmanship while adapting to new tools and contemporary design. These seven institutions are among the most respected for those who want to work with their hands and understand jewellery as both a craft and a form of expression.

1. Accademia delle Arti Orafe – Rome, Italy

The Accademia delle Arti Orafe has earned a solid reputation for its perfect balance between traditional goldsmithing and modern teaching. Founded by master craftsmen, the academy offers a full curriculum that covers high jewellery fabrication, stone setting, engraving, wax modelling, and professional bench techniques.

Lessons are individualized, with a large number of instructors for each student, and the approach is entirely hands-on. Teachers emphasize precision, repetition and control, the skills that define a true craftsman.

What sets the school apart is its atmosphere of continuity: the techniques taught today are the same ones that support the best Italian fine jewellery brands.

2. Hochschule Trier – Idar-Oberstein, Germany

The Department of Gemstones and Jewellery at Hochschule Trier occupies a special place in the field: it sits in Idar-Oberstein, a town known for centuries of gem-cutting and stone trade.

Here, jewellery education is inseparable from material knowledge. Students learn to cut, set, and design with stones, developing an understanding of their optical and tactile properties that few schools can offer.

The atmosphere is experimental yet grounded in discipline, merging the precision of German engineering with an artist's curiosity for texture, light, and form.

3. Pforzheim University – School of Design – Pforzheim, Germany

Pforzheim's School of Design sits in one of Germany's historic jewellery centres, and that heritage shapes its teaching. The department integrates goldsmithing, silversmithing, and product design in a studio setting.

Students spend long hours in the workshop mastering fabrication, casting, and stone setting. The program encourages technical accuracy and consistency, producing graduates who can move confidently between artistic and industrial environments.

4. Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp – Antwerp, Belgium

Antwerp's academy brings together centuries of craft knowledge and an openness to innovation. The jewellery program trains students to think through making: drawing, modelling, soldering, and finishing are all seen as part of one process.

Technical courses run alongside creative projects, ensuring that graduates are both skilled artisans and independent designers. The atmosphere is intense but supportive, rooted in respect for the material and the discipline it demands.

5. North Bennet Street School – Boston, USA

Boston's North Bennet Street School is almost an anachronism, and it's proud of it. In an era obsessed with conceptual design, its mission has stayed the same for over a century: to teach people how to make things by hand and make them exceptionally well.

Students spend their time with a saw, file, and torch in hand, absorbing the fundamentals through a kind of rigorous practice that has become rare. The goal is to train true bench jewelers, artisans whose hands know the answers before their minds even form the question.

6. Hiko Mizuno College of Jewelry – Tokyo, Japan

In Tokyo, Hiko Mizuno College is a benchmark in the Asian jewellery world, famous for its intensity and the impeccable technical preparation of its graduates. The approach reflects Japanese craft culture: absolute precision, discipline, and an almost sacred respect for the process.

The school's strong industry connections ensure the training is always grounded and relevant. Its graduates aren't just skilled; they are professionals, ready to work from day one.

7. George Brown College – Toronto, Canada

In Toronto, George Brown College's Jewellery Arts program offers one of the most practice-oriented educations in North America. Students spend most of their time at the bench, fabricating, soldering, setting, and finishing their own designs under the guidance of working jewellers.

The approach is pragmatic and disciplined, closer to an apprenticeship than a purely academic course. Set in a city known for its multicultural design scene, the program combines technical mastery with a realistic sense of how jewellery functions in today's market.

A shared philosophy of craft

Across all these institutions, one can sense a shared belief in the value of learning through the hands. Technology may change the tools, but the foundation of jewellery remains the same: careful observation, patience, and respect for the material.

Whether in Rome or Tokyo, the best schools are those where students leave the classroom for the bench, learning that true craftsmanship is built not on words, but on practice.