Mothercare’s Responsible Sourcing team commissioned a+b=3 to run a pilot training for the migrant workers employed by some of their factories in Guangzhou area. An exciting and innovative project which shows this employer’s involvement in their employees beyond the mere distribution of a salary. The aim of this training is to help these workers better manage their income and improve their life. Through the factories’ staff, we assessed the training needs and drafted the pilot training. On December 6, Myriam, Mandy and Michelle took the ferry to Zhongshan and trained around 30 workers
The 4 hour workshop went through how to control expenses, calculate how much money we have (net worth), the notion of “bad” and “acceptable” debt, how to calculate an available income, understand how to read a payslip, how to set goals and save for them and finally calculate and use a budget. Even though the training was held on their day off, participants were very engaged and enthusiastic and asked many questions. One participant remarked that families should be trained too, as they are the recipients (and main spenders) of the remittances. The feedbacks were very good and participants felt that budgeting was especially important.
