The Better Work Academy

Better Work has proven that it is possible to simultaneously improve working conditions, enhance worker wellbeing, and boost competitiveness in the global apparel industry. Join us for the Better Work Academy and we’ll show you how.

Aimed at brands and other actors committed to driving change and transforming behaviour in the apparel industry, the Better Work Academy will provide training and advisory services to your global staff, building their capacity to implement our tried-and-tested methodologies across your supply chain.

Over the past few years, more and more brands have recognized the limitations of an “assessment only” approach to creating long term improvements in factories and sought alternatives.

To support brands in this important transition, the Better Work Academy is dedicated to enabling your social compliance and sourcing teams to learn about – and replicate – our advisory approaches to improving working conditions, increasing productivity and fostering better worker-management relations in factories.

The focus is on encouraging more effective communication in factories, allowing for creative, long-term solutions to the root causes of non-compliance. Our approach also fosters shared accountability between the private and public sectors.

The Better Work Academy

The Academy is a roughly two-year program that can be tailored to participants’ specific needs. Training is delivered through 12 to 16 in-person days delivered through separate four-day modules. eLearning, virtual coaching, and in-factory shadowing are delivered in between the in-person sessions.
For more information, download our brochure

Key features of Better Work Academy

  • Learning will allow participants to work directly with your suppliers, empowering factories to drive their own improvement plans.

  • Training of Trainers will also enable participants to train other staff in your company so you can implement Better Work methodologies in other factories.

  • Participants will be able to train staff at supplier factories to increase their effectiveness and ownership over improvement activities.

  • eLearning on international labour standards will build participants’ expertise and help tackle challenging compliance areas during their factory work.

  • Regular coaching and feedback will help participants grow, gain confidence and hone their skills.

The courses on offer include:

Workplace cooperation

  • The business case for improving worker-management dialogue and joint problem solving
  • Facilitation and participatory training techniques
  • Freedom of association investigation
  • Responsible sourcing
  • Integrating advisory approaches with assessments/audits

Training of Trainers

  • Industrial Relations
  • Worker/management committees
  • Grievance mechanisms
  • Workplace communication
  • Negotiation skills
  • Management Systems approach to risk assessment and problem solving
  • Supervisory Skills Training
  • Tackling sexual harassment

E-learning

  • Industrial Relations
  • Forced Labour
  • Child Labour
  • Discrimination

Pricing is dependent on the final curriculum and number of participants. Trainings can be company-specific or delivered to a shared group of learners from across companies.

Upon graduation from the Better Work Academy, your staff will be able to:

  • Build more effective partnerships with supplier factories;
  • Address patterns in business practices to prevent and resolve conflicts at the factory level;
  • Pinpoint and tackle root causes of persistent non-compliance by aligning incentives and increasing collaboration;
  • Help workers and managers jointly develop and implement productivity improvements;
  • Collaborate effectively with public sector actors to solve labour issues, protect workers, increase business competitiveness and optimize resources;
  • Foster opportunities for workers – especially women – to have a voice in the factory, including moving to supervisory roles.

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