• An initiative to make Bahrainis the first choice of employment in the Labor Market

• Following the executive and legislative branches agreement on budget law for fiscal years (2023-2024)

In alignment with the directives of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa to carry on efforts to improve the living standards of Bahraini nationals through more initiatives, the Labour Fund (Tamkeen) announced the commencement of work on several program tracks focused on supporting wages of Bahraini employees and supporting their career development in various fields.

This followed the agreement between the executive and legislative branches on the budget law for fiscal years 2023-2024 which encouraged the launch of initiatives aimed at increasing wages of Bahrainis employed in the private sector through wage support programs dedicated to a number of occupations, as well as the enhancement of career development programs for Bahrainis and incentivizing enterprises to increase Bahranization rates. These directives will strongly contribute to the achievement of the national goal of making Bahrainis the first choice of employment in the labour market.

Commenting on this, Her Excellency Maha Mofeez, Chief Executive of the Labour Fund (Tamkeen) said: “We are keen on introducing initiatives aimed at integrating Bahrainis in the labor market and increasing their career development opportunities by combining training and wage increment support which will contribute to developing national talent and placing them in quality jobs.”

Furthermore, Her Excellency confirmed that Tamkeen is currently working on designing a number of new support tracks to support some of the occupations and specialties in the market with the purpose of expanding the range of beneficiaries and providing them with the skills required in the market, thus enabling them to climb the career ladder and get access to quality job opportunities.

Her Excellency further highlighted that Tamkeen recently launched Career Pathway maps for several sectors starting with Financial Services and Telecommunications as part of the Skills Bahrain reports. Work is currently underway to finalize the skills requirements for 9 remaining sectors which will be launched in due time.

It is worth mentioning that this year witnessed the launch of several initiatives aimed at supporting Bahrainis such as the initiative to support Bahraini doctors in the private sector, and Aspire initiative aimed at supporting the career development of Bahrainis and others.

Tamkeen also continued its training support initiatives through various partnerships with leading local and international training providers to give Bahrainis access to specialized training opportunities as per global standards. These include the partnership with General Assembly to train Bahrainis in various tech topics, Sans Institute to train Bahrainis in cybersecurity, the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries in London and BIBF to qualify Bahrainis as actuaries for the insurance sector, and more.

These initiatives complement Tamkeen’s ongoing efforts in supporting private sector enterprises committed to developing their human capital as part of this year’s strategy which is focused four key priorities: facilitating the increased economic participation of Bahrainis, providing training that is aligned with the labor market needs in new and emerging skills, as well as supporting growth and development of enterprises and ecosystem development, all of which drive positive economic impact and sustainable growth.