Highly skilled workforce
Bahrain’s business sector is supported by the most productive, highly-skilled bilingual national work force in the GCC (approximately 72% of the financial services workforce are Bahraini), and according to the Conference Board Report, Bahrainis are five time more productive than the average GCC worker.
That is because Bahrain has an advanced education system, which continues to improve. Bahrain's government has introduced education reforms that will continue to improve education and skills in line with the requirements of the private sector, adopting best practice from some of the world's most successful educational models.
There are 60 international schools offering curricula from Europe, the US, Japan and India. Several higher-education institutes have also set up graduate and post-graduate programs in Bahrain, including New York Institute of Technology and DePaul University. For Finance, the Bahrain Institute for Banking and Finance (BIBF) is a leading world-class provider of training, education and professional development programs to the financial services industry in Bahrain and the region.
The Labour Fund (Tamkeen) is spending US$100 million to provide over 18,000 Bahraini nationals with sector-specific skills training over the next four years. For example, the government funded Bahrain Polytechnic offers a variety of degrees to support the needs of the economy and give more Bahrainis more choice over the skills they want to develop. Degrees offered at the polytechnic range from a BA in Business, BA in Engineering Technology, Diploma in Office Administration, a Higher Diploma in Transport, Flight and Logistics and a Bachelor Degree in Information Communication Technology (ICT). The Human Capital Development program offered through Tamkeen’s numerous training partners such as Ernst & Young, The Bahrain Institute of Hospitality & Retail (BIHR), BDO Jawad Habibi, has been designed to address challenges in the labor market and to put forward solutions to improve employability and career progression for Bahrainis in the private sector. Programs that are offered include aeronautic maintenance engineering, healthcare, hospitality and accounting & finance.
The Best of Two Worlds
The government of Bahrain realizes that highly skilled and highly specialized positions require appropriately qualified individuals to fill them. This is why Bahraini businesses have the opportunity to choose between the local workforce or hire foreign specialists for these positions. Foreign business investors can ensure that their head-office employees run their local Bahraini businesses operations as well as their main office. International businesses can then benefit from local Bahraini talent and rely on their high rentention rate, and Bahrainis employees can equally benefit from international best practice.
