The 7^th supplier workshop of the Tchibo-GTZ Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) Project were conducted in Hangzhou on 21 and 22 Oct. 2009 and in Shenzhen on 28 and 29 Oct. 2009, respectively. The PPP Project "Worldwide Enhancement of Social Quality (WE)" is being implemented in the countries of Bangladesh, China and Thailand. It is dedicated to the qualification of local training institutions and pilot suppliers regarding the implementation of social standards and in-house dialogue. The goal is to further qualify and establish local training providers and to create multipliers for an innovative training tool.

The workshops, which were organised by the Sino-German Corporate Social Responsibility Project, were moderated by local trainers under the coaching of international trainers, targeting at supplier representatives from top management, middle management and production line workers.

In the Hangzhou workshop, 50 participants from 10 Tchibo suppliers attended the workshop. In addition, the WE-project coordinators of both GTZ (Ms. Julia Ranke) and Tchibo ( Ms. Nanda Bergstein) as well as  Mr. Stefan Besmehn from the sourcing department of Tchibo Hamburg, and  several staff members from the Tchibo Hong Kong Office, attended the event in Hangzhou as observers.

In the Shenzhen workshop, a total of 51 participants from 8 Tchibo suppliers participated. Besides Tchibo and GTZ representatives, the training organisation TAOS Network attended as observers. Related to the workshop activities, a trainer conference was held on 23rd & 24th Oct to allow all the international as well as local trainers of the WE project to exchange their lessons learnt and good practices.

The 7^th supplier workshops, as the last training workshop in 2009, focused on the topics of establishing a Social Management System. The trainings made extensive use of group work and interactive participation (e.g. a “CSR talk show”). In addition, suppliers were encouraged, as well as guided, to create action plans and be committed to the further sustainable development after the conclusion of the training project.

The WE project will furthermore attach importance to the information exchange and dissemination of the achievement made through the past two-year training. Tchibo has announced to continue qualifying its suppliers in China based on the dialogue approach of the WE project. For further information on the WE-project please refer to: www.we-socialquality.com.