To educate garment factory workers on workplace safety and labour laws, Myanmar has come up with an interactive smartphone game. The educational application, ‘Shwe Job’ has been launched by SMART Myanmar, an EU-funded 4-year (2016-19) project that supports sustainable consumption and production (SCP) of garments.
The game will provide the clothing factory workers with the knowledge on current labour laws in the country by using a blend of stories, illustrations and voice messages.
Jacob Clere, SMART Myanmar Team Leader, maintained that when they began their journey at SMART Myanmar in 2013, not even 1 per cent of garment workers had access to a mobile phones but now, in the current year, more than 90 per cent of garment workers have a smartphone.
This amazing transformation propelled SMART Myanmar to build a platform where workers can learn the workplace safety guidelines and labour laws using the latest technologies.
“What’s fantastic is that factory owners want their workers to use our mobile apps because they want a workforce which is knowledgeable on safety as well as the legal framework, as it will create more consistency, stability and mutual understanding,” he added.
Markedly, SMART Myanmar is the biggest non-profit technical training initiative in the nation’s industrial market. The project has so far educated more than 250 people from garment, textile and footwear industry on the numerous social and environmental topics.
The newest app has witnessed 5,000 downloads on Google’s play store in just a few days of its launch. The game has 8 challenges in 4 levels and a maximum of 40 questions based on labour laws and factory safety will be asked.