LVMH offers retail training program to disadvantaged Chinese-Americans

French luxury goods company LVMH

has teamed up with Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC), a non-profit organization that provides community services and Parsons The New School for Design to offer the “LVMH Fundamentals in Luxury Retail,” a new educational retail training program aimed at underprivileged bilingual Chinese-Americans living in New York.

A significant amount of Chinese-Americans currently living in New York have been struggling to find job opportunities that match their standards of living and aspirations, unfamiliar with American cultural ways, stated LVMH in a news release. At the same time, a number of luxury retailers have found it challenging to find the ideal candidates for retail staff to serve the increasing amount of Chinese-speaking customers visiting their stores.

New retail program open to bilingual Chinese-Americans in New York

LVMH has decided to solve both problems in one step, with the help of the CPC and Parsons and created the ten-week program, which aims to teach its students the skills they need to work in a luxury retail store. During the first eight weeks of the program, selected students will attend classroom sessions taught by Parsons teachers, as well as LVMH own managers and training professionals. Topics to be covered during the program will include a brief history of fashion, developing communication skills and understanding consumer trends. During the last two weeks, students will have an internship working at a New York store from a LVMH group brand.

“With close to five decades of experience with new immigrants, CPC is confident that this joint effort by LVMH and Parsons will bring unprecedented results in creating new career paths for the many untapped talents in the Chinese-American community,” commented David Chen, executive director of the CPC. “This project addresses a specific need among luxury retail stores to best serve their Chinese-speaking customers while boosting career advancement opportunities for this important community in New York City,” added Chantal Gaemperle, group executive vice president and human resources and synergies of LVMH.

So far three sessions have been planned for 2014, with the first one set to start in March. CPC is already recruiting students and application to the program is open to all individuals from New York's Chinese-American community, who can speak English and Mandarin, who have a high school certificate or equivalent, who are currently under- or unemployed and who have passion for fashion and retail.