Buying responsibly – new training and more

We’ve just piloted a new course on buying responsibly, incorporating new learning and practical ways to improve companies' purchasing practices. Luca Ponzetta, our training manager explains why we believe this is essential.

Responsible purchasing practices are increasingly understood to be a key element in tackling poor working conditions for workers in supply chains.

As such, training is an essential tool to help companies and organisations explore and share good practices, while understanding the current challenges businesses face.

ETI's training on purchasing practices is part of a concerted effort on our part – often in collaboration with others – to build a bank of good practice that benefits both workers and companies:

• Last year, the British, Danish and Norwegian-based Ethical Trading Initiatives jointly published a Guide to Buying Responsibly. This followed a joint ETI and International Labour Organisation (ILO) survey.
• ETI has also recently joined forces with Better Buying to collaborate in Bangladesh to support and promote responsible buying practices within garment supply chains.

Buying ethically – an introduction

ETI already delivers training to buyers through our popular Buying Ethically course.

The Buying Ethically half-day introductory course helps buyers to understand the issues around buying and the impact on workers in supply chains, and how purchasing practices can support ethical trade. It sets the scene and gets delegates thinking about the cause and effect of purchasing practices on suppliers and working conditions.

To further unpack the complexities and incorporate findings from our recent research, we’ve now created our new course on Purchasing Practices.

This new training is aimed at buyers, purchasing managers and people within commercial teams but also at ethical trade professionals. It enables them to understand the challenges their buying colleagues face.

The path to buying responsibly

Developed from learnings from ETI’s ongoing work on purchasing practices, the new Purchasing Practices course – Buying Responsibly – covers day-to-day tasks as well as overall business strategy and aims to provide delegates with a practical understanding of:

• What decent work means in the context of supply chains
• The impact of procurement practices on suppliers and working conditions
• A path to responsible buying

ETI training allows delegates (under Chatham House rules) to freely discuss some of the challenges they face, to explore practical ways to review their company’s purchasing practices, and to identify, prioritise and implement improvement measures, mindful of their impacts on suppliers.

Our approach to training is to blend engaging discussions with group work and focused information sessions. The pilot workshop was a great example of thought-provoking discussions and interaction between members.

In the coming weeks, we’ll be finalising materials and advertising the next set of course dates. Sign up here if you want to be kept up-to-date. We also offer bespoke training. To discuss training needs, get in touch with the training team via email or telephone at: training@eti.org.uk or +44 (0)20 7841 4350.