Liu Minxia,

    mllmx@msn.com

    MORE than 3,500 women from nine factories in Guangdong and Fujian provinces have benefited from a training program aimed at empowering women working in the manufacturing sector, where 60 percent of the employees are female.

    Launched in March by Walmart and non-profit organization BSR (Businesses for Social Responsibility), the program will teach 26,000 women in 45 Chinese factories over the next three years critical life skills related to communication, hygiene, reproductive health, occupational health and financial planning, a conference was told Tuesday. Up to 4,500 women will also receive advanced leadership training to develop work and life skills necessary for personal and career development.

    “As each of you know and will certainly hear more about today, women’s economic empowerment and, specifically, training women in factories is vitally important to Walmart and the workers in our supply chain,” said Guy Robertson, vice president of Walmart’s global sourcing and hub leader of Walmart’s Shenzhen office. “The program aims to empower women and bring sustainable change to factories that produce for Walmart and other brands and retailers.”

    Women workers and human resources managers at factories said they have seen the difference the program has made. “I learned how to release pressure, which will be a great asset in my life in the future,” said Zhang Shaorui, a worker on the garment sewing production line at Sinomax in Dongguan.

    Zhang Hua, human resources manager with Hop Lun International, a garment maker in Heyuan, Guangdong, said a trainer who is responsible for helping new workers adjust to life at Hop Lun built confidence through the program. “Wu Yan was not good at public speaking in the past,” Zhang said. “But now she knows how to break the ice, get to the point and warm the class up.”

    Factories willing to train their female employees, even those who are not Walmart suppliers, can join the program for free, and training will start for the second batch of nine factories at the end of next month, according to Wang Lin, a director with BSR.

    Executives of other global firms also attended the conference, hoping to glean some valuable information. “We share the same goal of recognizing the importance of the women in our supply chain and company operations,” said Michael Rittersbacher, director of corporate social responsibility at Motorola. “We attended the Walmart Women in Factories Annual Conference to learn from their successes and we are developing a similar training program for our suppliers.”