Vipshop, a leading online discount retailer for brands in China (“Vipshop” or the “Company”), has been actively investing in employee personal advancement of education and skills. So far this year, 38 front-line workers at the company’s operations center in southern China have passed the adult university entrance exam.
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Established in Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province in 2013, the operations center provides logistics and warehousing services to clients and brands partners in southern China’s provinces including Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Hainan.
The workers who passed the entrance exam held various positions varying from quality inspection, picking, scanning to customer service. They were admitted to reputable universities such as South China Agricultural University, Shantou University, and Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. Among the admitted workers, the popular major choices were logistics management, e-commerce and business administration.
In China, enhancing education and skills is a prevalent trend among front-line industrial workers. According to the document released by All-China Federation of Trade Unions, by the end of 2021, the number of skilled personnel in the country exceeded 200 million, with over 60 million categorized as high-skilled. The proportion of skilled personnel in the employed population stands at over 26%.
To provide a conducive learning environment for front-line workers, the operations center set up an 80-square-meter staff reading room with the warehouse premises. The reading room boasts a collection of more than 1,200 books that are either donated or purchased by the company’s labor union. In addition to novels, management books, and motivational literature, there are also exam study materials available for loan.
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Ou Jijun, one of the Vipshop employees who passed the adult university entrance exam, highlighted the significance of the staff reading room in her and her colleague’s pursuit of higher education. The reading room not only served as a mini-library, but also as a dedicated space where they could study every day.
In addition to the staff reading room, the center frequently arranges book clubs for workers. The center also extends support in exam registration and offers skill training to workers who aspire to enhance their education and professional skills.
Furthermore, Vipshop is committed to enhancing its training system and have built a professional training system with both online (V-Learning) and offline learning modules. With over 1,000 courses available, including leadership, professional competencies, general skills, professional ethics etc., Vipshop has developed diverse offerings for various learning needs. In 2022, the company provided 178,294 hours training to its employees.
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