Practical Skills Training Center for Rural Women

　　The Practical Skills Training Center for Rural Women is the first non-profit school for public welfare in China. It was set up in October 1998 by the Rural Women Knowing All magazine in Dadongliu Village of Xiaotangshan Township in Changping District. Its facilities currently houses 140 students and includes an auditorium, classrooms, dormitories, computer labs and hairdressing and beauty treatment training rooms. The Practical Skills Training Center receives financial support primarily from international organizations through project cooperation and donations from generous domestic and foreign people and organizations. The first donation was given by a renowned writer, the late Bing Xin.
　　The center has designed a variety of practical skills courses to meet the needs of rural women from different parts of the country. Apart from skills for finding employment or starting their own small business, the training center also offers gender awareness, citizenship and knowledge of law to uphold throughout its training by adopting a participatory way of training.
Relying on social forces, the center takes advantage of higher education resources to set up a network of teachers from universities in Beijing, and its full-time teachers give trainees personal tutorship. The center has now trained about 4,000 students of 17 ethnic groups from 26 provinces, cities and autonomous regions.
　　The training center received an award for its most advanced administration of a school by social forces. Peng Peiyun, Vice-President of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and President of the All-China Women’s Federation, Gu Xiulian, President of the ACWF, Zhu Shanlu, standing member of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee, as well as others have inspected the training center. They fully confirm its principle to run the school and also provided financial support. Ms. Mary Harney, Vice Premier of Ireland, Elaine L. Chao, Secretary of the US Department of Labor, Elaine R. Wolfenson, wife of the President of the World Bank and many other friends from abroad have visited the center.
Motto:
Solidarity, independence, co-construction and sharing
Mission:
To provide short-term training that will enable women from poor families to learn practical skills as well as to build their comprehensive capability, which will ultimately create advantageous conditions for them to fully participate in social development.
Participants:
The center caters to women from the western and poor areas and offers job training for young dropouts, capacity-building training for village women heads and teachers, and training for core members participating in projects supported by international poverty reduction institutes.
Courses Offered:
Computer (three months), hairdressing and beauty treatment (two months), restaurant service (one month), domestic service (15 days), farming and poultry raising (5-15 days).
Rural Women Grant-Aid Fund:
Ms. Leslie Chu, a woman activist and ceramicist from the USA, initiated the Grant-Aid Fund in 2000. The first sum of money of 320,000 yuan was raised by a charity sale of her ceramic creations. Today, the center has trained more than 400 young women between the ages of 16 to 19 and two-thirds of these trainees have jobs in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin or their home towns.
Sustainable Development:
With an objective for sustainable development, the center established a grace system which allows rural women to gain skills without concurrent tuition. Only after the women complete training and obtain employment are tuition payments requested. Up to now, more than 400 women have been trained as restaurant servers and have been employed in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Qindao and other big cities.

Chairman of the Board: Xie Lihua
Director: Wu Qing
Executive Director: Luo Zhaohong
Address: Dadongliu Village, Xiaotangshan Township, Changping District, Beijing (102211)
E-mail: njnbgs@sina.com
Website: www.nongjianv.org
Tele：010-61711484 010-61714581