CALGARY, AB, CANADA, July 02, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Entries for the 2024 De Beers Group Shining Light Awards (SLA) jewellery design competition are officially open. The competition falls under the De Beers Group Designers Initiative (DBGDI), a youth beneficiation skills development initiative aimed at inspiring, igniting, and enabling young jewellers with world-class jewellery design and manufacturing skills in each of the De Beers Group diamond-producing countries – Botswana, Canada, Namibia, and South Africa.
Since its launch more than 25 years ago, the Shining Light Awards have been a springboard for emerging jewellery designers across De Beers’ diamond producer countries, including Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. The prize pool for this year’s competition is US$90,000 per country
The competition runs every two years and is open to jewellery designers aged 18 to 35, who are in their final year, have graduated from a jewellery design programme or have relevant experience in jewellery design. The competition provides a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for youth to showcase their talent. Entries for the 2024 Shining Light Awards competition will be open from 19 June to 16 August 2024.
“The SLA is part of our Building Forever Sustainability Strategy commitment to ‘Accelerate Equal Opportunity’,” explains Otsile Mabeo, Vice President for Corporate Affairs at De Beers Global Sightholder Sales. “We at De Beers are committed to making an impact beyond the life of the mine by ensuring that every natural diamond we discover contributes to the sustainable development of our host communities wherever we have our operations. The SLA creates an enabling environment for growth, skills transfer, entrepreneurship, global experiences and mentorship in the jewellery design industry and we are excited to support youth across Botswana, Canada, Namibia and South Africa develop jewellery design and manufacturing skills. ”
This year’s theme is “Luxury Redefined”, which recognises the power of Millennials and GenZ to tell their story through design. The theme calls on entrants to innovate and curate a future forward definition of luxury that focuses on being authentic, innovative and inclusive whilst celebrating diversity. The theme calls on youth to show the world what Luxury means to them.
Moses Madondo, Managing Director of De Beers Managed Operations, says, “The SLA has evolved over the past years from being just a jewellery design competition to a youth enablement initiative that celebrates and capacitates jewellery design talent. It creates new and optimises existing facets of the diamond value chain – from jewellery design and manufacturing to sales, marketing and entrepreneurship.”
“The theme gives our entrants the space to really create something that accurately reflects their identity and values in today’s era, to define luxury in a brand new way. We are looking forward to seeing how they will interpret the theme,” says Madondo.
Winners from the four producer countries will be announced in November 2024, at a prestigious gala awards ceremony in Johannesburg, South Africa, following judging by an esteemed international panel.
This year the awards have been restructured to meet the winner and runners-up at their particular stage of career or business. There are three options awardees can choose from, and prizes include various combinations of business support, internships, skills development and tuition support for studies.
For more information about the 2024 Shining Light Awards competition and how to submit entries, please visit the official social media pages:
Facebook: Shining Lights Awards
Instagram: Shininglightawards
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