Helping change lives, empowering more for less. The Empowered Approach Works.
Explore Our Work Get in TouchPeer-to-peer, activity-based tools built for organisations working with hard-to-reach groups — designed to run at national and regional scale.
Built on lessons learned working with NGOs, UN agencies, and government ministries of labour and education across Asia — a community-based approach grounded in the realities facing organisations working with youth, women's business associations, and indigenous communities.
Peer-to-peer learning modules that help participants improve interpersonal skills, driving better team participation and outcomes. Built with leading multinationals, covering team building, problem solving, creativity, first-time management, and cross-cultural understanding.
Helping factories help themselves improve across quality, productivity, labour practices, health and safety, and workplace relations — covering over 80 topics across multiple sectors, deployable independently or with a facilitator.
Watch: Our Experience
Since 1991, we have developed training for the United Nations that is sustainable and impactful. The challenge has consistently been providing solutions that reach scale, fit budgets, and continue once UN funding runs out.
The journey started at UNIDO in the early 90s with the TQM Awareness Programme across five African countries, moved through ILO research on codes of conduct and corporate social responsibility, and on to the Factory Improvement Programme (later renamed SCORE).
By the early 2010s, expert-based "train the trainer" models proved hard for partners to sustain on cost alone — leading to activity-based learning tools now used globally for youth entrepreneurship, small business development, soft skills, and factory upgrading.
We work with partners to determine their training goals, then develop a solution that is low cost and well suited to participants — typically a peer-to-peer, activity-based learning model.
The solution is piloted with an increasingly larger target group, adjusting at each step. The result: a low cost-per-participant ratio and an enjoyable, engaging, empowering experience for everyone involved.
Watch: Our Approach
Watch: Our Experience
The founder of Empowered.Works, Charlie Bodwell, has developed and delivered training solutions since the early 1980s — working with multinationals including Schlumberger, IBM, and Agfa-Bayer, followed by 30+ years expanding that experience through global UN development programmes.
Training partners have included Seagate, Google, Nestlé, and IBM, along with the supply chains of leading buyers including Nike, Gap, H&M, Amazon, Ikea, and Target.
Research and case studies on codes of conduct, factory upgrading, and activity-based training from work with the ILO and partners.
Reach out to discuss entrepreneurship support, soft skills training, or production upgrading for your organisation.