Support for the Trade
Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility in business today is about considering and managing the ethical, environmental, and social performance alongside financial performance. It has been called the “Triple Bottom Line” and showing how, and measuring that, you are making a contribution to society is an expectation for all businesses operating today.
The term “CSR” may be a recent one, but it re-packages and interprets what the Livery Companies began centuries ago. This was, in short, to ensure their trades were sustainable.
They did this by setting and maintaining standards and regulations, supporting their trades and tradesmen both financially and through fellowship, and by helping to train and educate young people and offer welfare.
Article: Get with the (CSR) ProgrammeChanging Lives - An overview of the Goldsmiths Company's charitable giving 2017.
Cufflinks by Fred Rich
Swan neck punches, and straight neck punch
Quality
Today, our focus at the Goldsmiths’ Company Assay Office is on Quality – quality of the hallmark we apply, quality of the support we give, quality of the service we supply. But it's important to us not only to lead with the product and services we offer, but also to lead with the impact we make on the trade. As part of the Goldsmiths’ Company we achieve this.
Our integrity is part of our heritage and is renowned - truth and transparency in what we do is vital, reflecting our historic company motto “Justice is the Queen of Virtues”. Having operated for 700 years, naturally we consider the quality of our legacy - what will we leave for the next generation of the trade, in the coming years?
Support for the Trade
The Company’s main objective is to support, build and maintain a sustainable world-class trade – it always has been, and always will be - and is at the centre of how it operates today.
Our customers, our employees, our Liverymen, our Wardens, our regulators, the trade and communities in which we operate demand that we align our existing and developing goals and values with their expectations of how a responsible business should run. That’s the way things were in the 1300s, and that’s the way they remain today.
Punches, clockwise from top left, date letter, traditional fineness, millesimal fineness, townmark
The Goldsmiths’ Centre © Morley von Sternberg, The Goldsmiths’ Centre, 2012
The Goldsmiths' Centre
We support skills development in the current and future workforce through apprenticeships, giving of grants and bursaries, and through training offered within Goldsmiths' Hall and at The Goldsmiths' Centre.
The Goldsmiths’ Centre offers support and training for jewellers, silversmiths and those working in the allied trades to develop successful and rewarding careers. It brings together trainee and working goldsmiths and those interested in the trade in a unique community that works and learns together. The Goldsmiths’ Centre’s aim is to create a skilled workforce, boost the economy and promote craftsmanship in the UK.
The Consumer
Furthermore, we are committed to helping the consumer. The Assay Office’s links with Trading Standards help enhance consumer protection. Tours, presentations, seminars, and events provide training and information. We offer further support in various forms, including the examination of spurious antique silver via the Antique Plate Committee, and Hallmarking authentication. Educating the consumer to choose more wisely again helps to support the trade.
In addition, charitable giving also extends beyond the trade through educational, cultural and general welfare initiatives. Read more here.
Student Services
At the Goldsmiths’ Company part of our ethos is to encourage and assist individuals to enter the trade, whether it is through educational workshops, visits to colleges, free Library support, precious metal bursaries or apprenticeships. We also run Make Your Mark - the free, leading event for students on a precious metal course.
We know how difficult it can be to begin a career in this industry, so we offer a special hallmarking package for students on precious metal courses in the UK, to help and encourage you to move confidently forward in your chosen career. This free package is exclusively for full and part-time students on precious metal courses in the UK.
stacked punches
Student Hallmarking Package
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All full and part time students on a current jewellery or silversmithing course* can register online free of charge for a 10 year laser only registration.
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We would always recommend having a punch too, to cover all eventualities, this can be ordered and purchased online at the time of registering. Costs can be found here.
- You will receive a guided tour of the facilities at Assay Office - free
- To register please click here.
If you are a student and would like us to visit your college to present a workshop about hallmarking please contact us.
*Full time is an academic year or more than 15 hours a week. Part time is at least a 12 week course.
We are proud to host the UK’s biggest careers event for apprentices and students of jewellery and allied trades.
Launched in 2014, Make Your Mark is a completely free tutor–student event open to apprentices, and anyone studying on a UK-based precious-metal-related course (full- or part-time) whether at degree level or on a short adult education or private tutored course.
Led by the Goldsmiths’ Company Assay Office, and supported by the Goldsmiths’ Company and the Goldsmiths’ Centre, the regular event provides a packed programme of inspiring talks from leading figures in the trade, live demos, careers advice and much more besides.
