The ILO SCORE project and the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) co-organized the ILO & ETI SCORE Experience Sharing Session 2019 in Hangzhou, China. The meeting reviewed the two-year implementation and results of ETI SCORE Training for suppliers. 

The aim of this collaboration was to:

• For enterprises：Increased productivity and better access to global markets as well as to meet buyer and labour law requirements;
• For workers: Improved working conditions and better workplace ;
• For national and international buyers：more competitive suppliers with better compliance and lower reputation risk.

During the meeting, participating ETI members, trainers and suppliers were invited to share their experiences with the programme. Participants were split into several groups to discuss the challenges and strategic suggestions on training content design, data collection, sustaining improvement methods and project impact. The ILO SCORE China Project Manager, Mr. ZHANG Xubiao opened the workshop and moderated the discussion. Mr. Stephan Ulrich, the ILO SCORE Southeast Asia Regional Coordinator, congratulated the success of the SCORE ETI Training in China. He also introduced the project development in Southeast Asian Countries and discussed future cooperation and next-step work plan with the representatives of ETI member brands.

According to ETI representative, Ms. Eshan Chan, since the launch of ETI SCORE Project in March 2017, ETI members have actively participated and encouraged the enterprises in their supply chains to conduct SCORE Training. Throughout the project, 10 member brands have recommended 22 suppliers to join the training and on-site consulting programme. Over 9000 workers and managers have benefited from the training. In term of results, after training for example, one factory in Guangzhou reduced product defect rate by over 30% within 3 months following SCORE Training. Another enterprise saw its product defect decrease from 5% to 3% within 1 month following the training module Quality: Managing Continuous Improvement.

This training programme specifically designed to improve supply chains is a valuable exploration in global supply chain training market and a successful cooperation between the ILO and the ETI. As a pilot, part of the project funding came from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)’s develoPPP.de programme, which is supervised by SEQUA GmbH on BMZ’s behalf. In the future, SCORE Training for participating enterprises will continue independently with funding from ETI members and suppliers, to achieve the financial sustainability of the programme in the long term.