Mobile Van Training Program
Verité's Mobile Van Training Program is designed to bring the benefits of in-factory worker training to production facilities where in-house programs do not exist. In the first year and a half of operation, the Mobile program provided training to 11,000 workers in 23 factories in southern China . This year, the Mobile Training van will regularly visit 38 factories and provide training to an additional 8,000 workers.
Supported by the Timberland Company (founding sponsor), Eileen Fisher, New Balance Athletic Shoes and other brands, the goal of the Mobile Training Program is to provide production workers, most of whom have received only an elementary or junior high school level of education, a basis of knowledge that will both help them with personal choices and empower them through increased awareness of workplace issues.
A van carrying Verité staff and/or professional trainers (depending on the session's topic) visits each factory for two hours in the evening at set intervals, and presents materials related to a single topic. The topics include training in occupational health and safety, women's health issues (including reproductive health and HIV prevention), infectious diseases (Hepatitis B, SARS), communication skills, social counseling, nutrition, Code of Conduct issues (including labor law and wage calculation).
The Mobile program is designed to be responsive to workers' immediate needs.
In response to the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), the T raining team introduced a SARS information and prevention session in the Spring of 2003 lead by local doctors. Similarly, following reports of an epidemic of Hepatitis B in the Guangdong area local doctors were contact ed to conduct seminars to educate workers on the prevention and treatment of Hepatitis B. When 30 percent of the program's female production workers reported suffering from common gynecological ailments, a Mobile Training team instructor—a gynecologist from Shenzhen Renmin Hospital —designed a curriculum around identifying, preventing and treating the symptoms reported.
Worker testimony provided during interviews at the conclusion of each factory visit has been positive.
“Previously, I had no idea where or of whom I could ask these questions. It is here, at my factory, that I learned how to take better care of myself. ” A worker at a supplier factory for Timberland.
“I was unaware of the protections afforded to workers by law. Now after training on China Labor Law and workers' rights, I am more informed of my legal rights.” A worker at an Eileen Fisher supplier factory.
One hundred percent of 100 workers surveyed at the conclusion of the trainings conducted for Eileen Fisher reported that they would like to participate in future Mobile Training Programs. Factory management personnel also expressed their satisfaction with the program and reported that worker morale had measurably improved.
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