WRAP Blog

As you may know, in addition to certifying factories for social compliance, WRAP’s mission also contains a training and education component led by our Vice President of Training and Education Stuart Webster.

Webster uses a special accelerated learning technique, which we’ve covered on the blog before, when educating students in his three- and five-day auditor courses taught around the world all year round. (WRAP’s full training schedule can be found on the website)

Accelerated learning uses visual, auditory and kinesthetic styles of engagement to create effective, rather than ineffective learners. Webster’s teaching methods include visual cues such as color-coding, pictures, and diagrams, auditory cues such as jokes, anecdotes, music, and kinesthetic, or tactile, methods such as hands-on interactive activities and shorter hour-long chunks of learning.

Webster was deep in the throes of teaching a five-day auditor course to the students at Amsterdam Fashion Institute when our communications manager, Cori Sue Morris, caught up with Harry Mitchell, an IRCA Training Assessor to talk about accelerated learning and the values of social compliance.

Through his role at IRCA, Mitchell travels around the world visiting training courses to verify that they are technically in conformance with IRCA published criteria and are delivered in the way the organization requires. Mitchell has worked in the industry since 1994.

CSM: “Where does accelerated leaning come from?”

HM: “Accelerated learning is based upon the idea of a whole-brain approach to learning, which is why we look for a variety of teaching techniques. It comes from a few scholars—by Colin Rose, Poly Ann Wofford and Tony Buzan, who created the mind mapping theory.

It’s about understanding the way students learn. Through the way they give you answers, the way they look about and other visual cues, you can determine how each individual learns best. A good teacher will get to know his students, how they learn, how they respond to stress, how they respond to challenges. By the end of the first day, a good instructor should know all the personalities.”

CSM: “Why does IRCA value accelerated learning?”

HM: “As far as IRCA is concerned, with in the last decade, the organization’s leadership decided that it would incorporate accelerated learning into its courses. All IRCA-certified courses are supposed to use this learning technique, but it can be interpreted in different ways. It’s key that all courses involve the students, use a variety of teaching techniques, utilize a rich mix of stimuli, and improve memory and recall.”

CSM: “How do you think teaching a five-day social compliance auditing course at a fashion institute will benefit the students in their future careers?”

HM: “This idea of embedding a five-day certification course in a university program is a great idea. This AMFI course, which I first saw three years ago, is amazing because they’re doing it as part of a program. [Students take the five-day auditing course to learn about social compliance in factories before traveling to Hong Kong to learn Chinese language and culture, then intern with an apparel sourcing company].

The students aren’t just going out as academics, but as practitioners with a practical experience and ability to appraise and understand social compliance issues. It’s very valuable.  It’s lucky for the students to be able to travel and have this experience.”

CSM: “What makes this training course taught at AMFI unique?”

HM: “Normally, this type of course is taken by managers and technicians, but these fashion students are young and just starting their careers, it’s an interesting perspective and challenge for them.

The enthusiasm shown and depth of questions asked by the students is remarkable. They all come in with different perceptions—it’s really interesting to watch and one of my favorite courses all year.”

For more information on the course taught to honors fashion management students at the Amsterdam Fashion Institutes, check out the recaps of day one through five on the blog.

Posted on February 17th, 2012 by wrapadmin
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Editor’s Note: This is the fifth and final installment of a five-day look into one of WRAP’s most exciting training courses, taught by our Vice President of Training and Education Stuart Webster to third-year honors students in the Fashion Management degree program at the Amsterdam Fashion Institute (AMFI). AMFI students learned the ins-and-outs of factory certification, social compliance practices and challenges, and the role of audits and WRAP certification in the apparel and fashion industry.

It was a busy, full week for the ten honors students enrolled in Webster’s five-day auditing course. Dressed fashionably, students from Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and New Zealand arrived to class each morning eager and ready to learn about the other side of the fashion industry—apparel production.

Armed with toys—for rewards and stress relief—and his hilarious sense of humor, Webster was there to greet them and educate on the importance of social compliance and factory audits to ensure apparel factories operate under humane, ethical, and lawful conditions.

On the first day, students learned about the history of social compliance, including factory disasters and labor abuse scandals. The second day focused on the principles of child, forced and trafficked labor—and how to spot such conditions when auditing a factory. Students also learned about auditing teams and management systems.

Day three focused on health, safety and environment in factories and how to spot risks in factories. Students engaged in six interactive exercises—from spotting dangers in factories to mapping out safety conditions in cafeterias and drafting fire safety plans.

On the fourth day, students journeyed to the mythical land of GooBaba, to conduct an audit on a local shoe factory. Conducting role-plays and interviews, students held factory opening and closing meetings, interviewed workers and audited the factory in full.

On the last day, students took the final exam, a comprehensive test on social compliance, WRAP Principles, the auditing process and labor compliance. Following the two-and-a-half-hour exam, students left the course attuned to the importance of social compliance and eager to move forward to careers in apparel sourcing.

“I’m over the moon with the enthusiasm presented by the students. Their challenging questions, overall interest and, most importantly, their concern for the well-being of workers in factories, fields, and production and processing industries across the world,” said Webster after the course completed.

All the students passed the five-day IRCA-accredited auditor course.

 

Posted on February 14th, 2012 by admin
Filed under: Training | No Comments »