International Finance Corporation (IFC) has recently reported that the trained workers can help to improve the productivity of Bangladesh ready-made garment (RMG) factories by 5 per cent. It also states that the trained female workers in the RMG factories have been supported to become supervisors as they became more efficient after getting trained. The percentage of female supervisors went up to 11.86 per cent from 5.22 per cent before the training, according to the study.

Training increases efficiency and is advantageous for female supervisors as well as the factories, Wendy Werner, country manager, IFC Bangladesh said.

In collaboration with the Innovations for Poverty Action and Better Work Bangladesh back in 2016-17, IFC had carried out a training for 144 female sewing operators and mid-level managers in 28 garment factories in Bangladesh. About 92 of the 144 trainees were offered promotions and salary increments in a few weeks after completing the two-months training. Close to 60 per cent of them have taken up the offers, states the ‘Cutting through the Cloth Ceiling’ as mentioned in the IFC report.

Each female trainee was provided with a Work-Progression and Productivity Toolkit (WPT) and the training included five days of training in classroom to develop technical skills required for production line supervision. It also included a 4-day soft skills training on communications, leadership and on how to be an effective supervisor along with an on-the-job training of eight weeks.

Over 2,000 people from the participating factories were interviewed for the survey. The study was led by Anaise Williams and Christopher Woodruff from the University of Oxford.

– Apparel and Textile News, Apparel Talk, Indian Apparel