Becoming a jeweller in France: CAP, workshop or online course?

“Do I need a diploma to become a jeweller?” It is the first question that reaches us from France. The short answer: no, the law does not require one. The useful answer is longer, because what the law asks of you and what actually teaches you the craft are two different things.

What the law requires — and what it does not

Jewellery is not one of the activities reserved to a qualified person. The list sits in article 16 of loi n° 96-603 of 5 July 1996: servicing and repair of vehicles and farm machinery, building construction and maintenance, networks and equipment using fluids, gas, heating and electrical installations, chimney sweeping, beauty care, dental prosthetics, preparation of fresh bakery, pastry, butchery and charcuterie products, ice cream making, farriery, hairdressing, pet grooming. Jewellery is not on it.

One word does need separating from the craft itself: “artisan” is a title. To claim it, service-public.gouv.fr requires a CAP or a BEP in the trade, an RNCP-registered certification of at least equivalent level, or three years of professional experience in the trade (code de l'artisanat, article L211-1). In other words: you may make and sell without a diploma; you may not call yourself an artisan without meeting one of those three conditions.

What is genuinely regulated in jewellery is not the training: it is the finenesses of the metal and the hallmarks. We set those out in our article on buying silver in France — they apply the day you sell, whichever route you came by.

The CAP: what it actually is

The certificat d'aptitude professionnelle is “a national diploma attesting a first level of professional qualification” — that is the definition in article D337-1 of the code de l'éducation. It sits at level 3 of the national qualifications framework.

The diploma for this trade is called CAP Art et techniques de la bijouterie-joaillerie, with three options: “bijouterie-joaillerie”, “bijouterie sertissage”, “polissage finition”. Its entry in the national register is RNCP36336, the certifying body is the ministry of national education, and the registration runs to 31 August 2027. If you land on a page still quoting entry RNCP5648, move on: that one has been inactive since 31 August 2022.

By the school route, the training runs over a two-year cycle of study. The same text — article D337-6 of the code de l'éducation — provides that it may also be followed through apprenticeship, within continuing vocational training, or by distance learning.

What the diploma gives you: a qualification an employer recognises, access to the artisan title, a way through a workshop door. What it does not give you: the right to practise — you already have that — nor customers, nor hands. Hands come from hours at the bench, and no route spares you those.

The four routes, honestly

1. The school route. Two years, full time, in an institution. For someone who can clear two years and wants the diploma, the equipped bench and a supervised progression all at once. It is the longest in continuous time and the most complete.

2. Apprenticeship. You learn in a workshop and in a training centre, alternating, under contract — paid, and corrected by a professional. One limit worth knowing before you build plans on it: the apprenticeship contract is for people aged sixteen to twenty-nine inclusive at the start of the apprenticeship (article L6222-1 of the code du travail). The code provides for exceptions; they are checked case by case.

3. Adult retraining, through continuing vocational training. This is the legal frame built for people picking up a qualification mid-life: the code du travail gives it the purpose of supporting entry or return to employment, keeping people in work, developing skills and giving access to the various levels of qualification (article L6311-1). The CAP can be prepared within it — article D337-6 says so explicitly.

4. The individual candidate. You can sit the exam without going through an institution: adult candidates who cannot show they followed any training are admitted to it (article D337-7). service-public.gouv.fr sets out the conditions for sitting as a candidat libre — being 18 by 31 December of the exam year and not being enrolled in a school; with no age or diploma condition if you prepare through distance learning. Registration is free and goes through the rectorat, or the SIEC if you live in Île-de-France.

And if you already work at it: the CAP “is obtained by passing an examination or, in whole or in part, by the validation of acquired experience” (article D337-5). VAE no longer requires you to show at least a year of experience — that condition was removed; what is needed is an activity directly related to the certification you are after (service-public.gouv.fr; code du travail, articles L6411-1 onwards).

Courses in a private workshop

They award no diploma, and that is not what they are for. What they give is something else, and it is valuable: an equipped bench, metal, and someone behind you who sees the file biting crooked before the piece is lost. A few days, sometimes a few months. It is the fastest format for correcting a movement — and the most expensive per hour.

Where an online course fits

Let us be plain: an online course is not a diploma and does not replace the CAP. No online school issues a national diploma — ours no more than anyone else's. Anyone who lets you believe otherwise is selling you something other than what is on the label.

What an online course does give you is the technique: melting, forming, soldering, emery work, polishing — shown by someone who does it, and replayable ten times over the same minute of video. It also gives you something the other routes cannot: you can start tonight. Within a few weeks you will know whether two hours spent on a single solder joint bore you or keep you up. That is an answer worth having before you commit two years.

Plenty of people combine, and that is probably the sensible thing: an online course to lay the base and test the appetite, a workshop course to have the hand corrected, and then the CAP — school route, apprenticeship, continuing training, individual candidate or VAE — on the day the project turns professional.

The real cost is time

• School route: a two-year cycle of study, full time.
• Apprenticeship: the length of the contract, split between workshop and training centre — and a door that closes at thirty.
• Continuing vocational training: variable; it is a framework, not a duration.
• Individual candidate: you set the pace, but the exam session has its date and registration comes well before it.
• Workshop course: a few days to a few months, very concentrated.
• Online course: the time you put in — and it starts tonight.

How to choose

If you are aiming at a job in a workshop or a house, take the diploma: it is what you will be asked for at the door. If you want to make and sell under your own name, the law asks nothing of you — but the craft will ask the same hours of you as of everyone else. And if you do not yet know whether this is for you, do not start with the longest route: start by touching metal, then decide.

One last note: this article is written by jewelers, not lawyers. The rules quoted are public and dated, but your own case — age, status, plans — should be confirmed with the rectorat, the chamber of trades or the relevant public service.