Women workers get ‘P.A.C.E.’ in their lives with Gap Inc. and Orient Craft.
Hundreds of women workers across various states of India have been able to improve their lives with the help of international apparel retailer Gap Inc. and its suppliers like Orient Craft (OC). P.A.C.E. (Personal Advancement & Career Enhancement), an initiative created by Gap Inc., which focuses on modules like communication, problem solving and decision making, time and stress management, and financial literacy.
Orient Craft, one of India’s top apparel exporter with the turnover of more than US $ 230 million, recently had a closing ceremony of the first batch of P.A.C.E. participants at one of its factory at Gurgaon. A skit presented by female workers of the factory beautifully displayed the impact and effectiveness of the P.A.C.E. program. To motivate the P.A.C.E. graduates to take leadership roles in their lives and to enhance their career, OC’s management had conducted technical testing. As a result, they have promoted three top P.A.C.E. trained females to the role of supervisor and QC’s. By doing so, OC’s management had set a great example for all females in their facilities to scale up the ladder.
By 2020, OC has a target plan to expand the P.A.C.E. program to 15,000 females from across all their woven and sweater units, training centres and nearby community in Jharkhand and Rajasthan.
Happy with the overall improvement of female workers, Sudhir Dhingra, CMD of the company, is of the opinion that P.A.C.E. will help women address the male-dominated mindset of Indian society, and he wants more and more female workers to participate in such training programs and take leadership roles in the organization.
Prashant Das, Manager, P.A.C.E. Global Initiatives, Gap Inc. shared that the program has expanded to more than 16 countries around. He thanked Orient Craft for their active participation and enthusiasm in implementing P.A.C.E.
Archana Tomar Mann, VP, Compliance, CSR, Training & Development told Apparel Resources that P.A.C.E. has really helped female workers to focus and improve on their life skills as a result it helped them to improve their self-confidence and belief etc. and now they are able to focus on their work-life balance in a better way. These life skills are really paramount to getting ahead in the workplace and in personal lives too. P.A.C.E. has helped our female workers to realize their true potential and have their own voice.