Remarks at EDC S Spring Workshop on May1st, 2012

Remarks at EDC’s Spring workshop on May1st, 2012

“Reentry with a focus on Employment”

Introduction:

Good afternoon everyone: Thank you all for coming. I would like to extend a very warm welcome to each and everyone attending today’s workshop. It is indeed a great pleasure to have you at the embassy. I will give you a brief overview of the Cultural Office, and a summary of what the Office has done in international education before speaking about Bahraini students’ reentry with a focus on employment, the theme for this panel.The subject is important.Different sponsoring bodies in Bahrain have helped me with the following research. This has been helpful for me to understand the situation as well. I personally would like to thank the Embassy Dialogue Committee and its wonderful dedicated members who are present today for being very helpful when needed any assistance with regards to different issues when dealing with our international students.

The CulturalOffice:

The Cultural Office is located at the embassy has a two-fold aim. First, to advise and provide suitable studying environment to all Bahraini students who arestudying, or wish to study, in the USA and Canada. Second, to foster and enhance the US-Bahraini and the Canadian-Bahraini cultural relations.
The Cultural Office is also committed to establishing linkages and cooperative endeavors to enhance cross-cultural understanding between Bahrain and American and Canadian Society at large.
We have assisted several interested universities, colleges and individuals over the past five years to identify institutions and sectors they could intern or collaborate with. Many universities have established direct contacts with their Bahraini alumni to strengthen the relationship further.
The Cultural Office beenin contact withseveral higher education facilities in Bahrain to explore whether they could absorb a number of American students and whether there exists a strong motivation and intent on their part to host interested American students. Iexplored the infrastructure and the physical and institutional capacities as well as the equally important aspects of existing challenges associated with hosting American and Canadian students.
Currently there are 10 universities operating in Bahrain,4 public, one regional and 5 private. The University of Bahrain is thelargest university in Bahrain The UOB has developed a policy to facilitate and govern a Student Exchange Program for academic credit. The Cultural Office has put many universities in contact with them.
Though the Cultural Office is not always requested to place the sponsored students, we opt to place Bahraini scholars in quality programs when we are asked, to prepare them for the market needs of the Kingdom of Bahrain.
Also Since we have mutual interests and ambitions with universities here of increasing the number of students, we have reviewed some strategies and plans to make that happen when we were initially approached by interested recognized universities. We were successful in placing several sponsored Bahraini students in US universities because of our collaborative work with them.

Background:

In 1927, the first group of Bahrainis scholars was sent abroad for university degree when Bahrain was poor before the discovery of oil in 1932.Bahrain led the economic development in the Arabian Gulf for much of the 20th century having been the first to discover oil. The discovery of oil led to the introduction of modern technology and transformed our labor force. Bahrain diversified its economy more than 40 years ago and moving to a far more diversified economy that is dependent on the private sector as the main engine for growth. We do that by introducing new technologies, transforming the role of government .

10 years ago after the introduction of political reforms,Bahrain has undertaken massive labour market reforms to meet employment challenge. `According to a study published by the Crown Prince court ;Over the next decade, nearly 100,000 new Bahraini will enter the labour market. Many of them will be young Bahrainis,recently graduated from high school or post-secondary studies, who will be looking for work.Others will be women.Still others who are currently unemployed and may not have the skills to compete for adequately paying jobs. To work on that Bahrain had to change the economic model which didn’t provide enough jobs for Bahrainis because of the historic reliance on public sector employment which is no longer sustainable and the low wage business model in the private sector is not producing jobs for Bahrainis.

Changing the economic model required comprehensive and integrated reform across other areas, economic reform, education and training reform to ensure that :The private sector is the engine of growth for Bahrain.Bahrainis are the employees of choice for the private sector.The reform is essential to sustain the economy's growth and raising the standards of living for Bahrainis.Work on reform is also very important to prepare students for the labour market of.

To ensure that our education system provides all students with the training necessary to succeed in today’s job market there was a requirement for strong emphasis on quality across all levels – schooling, vocational and higher education. Preparing young people for success in life is not justa moral obligation of society" but also an "economic imperative The key objective of the reform is to increase the skill level and competency of Bahrainis by developing education and training to strengthen their effectiveness in the labour market

Government Philosophy:

The Kingdom of Bahrain is a service led economy with a focus on the financial sector The Economic Development strategyThe economic development strategy of Bahrain is built on six targeted economic sectors in which the kingdom offers significant strengths to include: financial services, downstream industries, tourism, business services, logistics, and education and training. Currently, the combined services sector makes up 57pc of the economy in the kingdom; by contrast, oil and gas production now accounts for less than 20pc of gross domestic product (GDP). "Financial services alone contribute to nearly 27.6% of Bahrain's GDP making it currently the largest sector. There are over 400 licensed financial institutions. This has created a large pool of local talent. Of around 14,000 individualsemployed in the industry, 67% are Bahraini, with very high levels of financial skills and expertise.

There is no specific discipline but degreesin Accounting, Finance, Tourism,Engineering degrees and specialized technical training are very important for Bahrain.

Our students and sponsoring bodies:

Currently we have about 300 graduate and undergraduate Bahraini students on our list at the embassy and more than 700 on Facebook. These numbers include medical doctors who are on medical training programs and various scholarship programs and sponsoring bodies in Bahrain.

According to the Institute International Education Open Door statistics we currently have around 400 students in the United States. However we believe we have more probably more than 600 just in the US. There are many as well in Canada. Since registration with embassy is not compulsory, we don’t have accurate statistics of their numbers. Though we managed to connect with many of our private students on Facebook. The Cultural Office is committed to creating a home for them away from home.

At the Cultural Office, we deal with students from different sponsoring bodies such as the Bahrain Defense Force, Ministry of Education, BAPCO, ALBA, Ministry of Interior and Foreign Affairs, and the Crown Prince International Scholarships. Most of the sponsoring bodies require that their sponsored students return to Bahrain to contribute to the sponsor’s mission except for the

The Crown Prince International Scholarships:which are fully funded under-graduate scholarships awarded on an annual basis to 5 young men and 5 young women from both private and governmental secondary schools, providing them the opportunity to study at top international universities and colleges.Their students either began employment or continued with their post-graduate degrees, funded by HRH the Crown Prince. The Program places no restrictions on students on where they work upon graduation.

In fact, HRH encourages graduates to obtain a job in the global arena and gain international work experience and exposure before returning to Bahrain.If the students chooses to return to Bahrain ,they help them find full time positions .,If they apply elsewhere in the world –they help with recommendation letters and visa letters. Going through their list of Alumni –this present time - out of 48 graduates, 11are in the UK, 3 in the USA, 24 in Bahrain, 9 in UAE & Kuwait, 1 not yet known (considering Masters/PhDs).

The problem with students staying in UK or USA is the visa status issue. Students can apply for a post study visa which allows them to work for 2 years without costing the companies any money. After those two years, the students then become a cost issue due to sponsorship etc – hence why most students manage 2 years abroad then come back to the Middle East as they are given notice by their companies that they cannot afford to sponsor etc.

In the UK there is talk that they will abolish the post study visa and introduce a sponsored post study visa which means UK companies will have to sponsor straight away and will not have a 2 year gap – so we could have even less students staying in the UK. And you are familiar with the policies of course for the USA.

About 3 years ago they had about 7 or 8 in the US and the same in the UK but there 2 year post study visas have finished and they have come home.

The CPIS expose their students to real work challenge through the summer internships with leading companies,banks and government entities. . In the U.S. CPIS students do Business, Engineering, Computer Science, Economics& International Relations, Finance,Human Resources management, Political Science, Mass communication, Maths, Biotechnology Genetics

The University of Bahrain:sends their Bahraini teaching assistants and lecturers to do graduate work (masters and Phd’s) they return back to the university for full –time jobs. There is a contract that they need to return to teach after their successful completion of the programs. Current students are studying Computer Science,Engineering,Criminal Law,IT.

The Bahrain Petrolum Company: The Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO), wholly owned by the Government of Bahrain, is engaged in the oil industry At BAPCO they continue to implement plans to meet their future requirements for talented young Bahrainis, male and female, through the award of graduate scholarships. These scholarships are for full-time study, either in Bahrain or overseas.Currently they have a healthy number of graduate scholars studying in Bahrain, the USA, Australia and the United Kingdom.They secure full time jobs with them.

. Scholars also gain valuable work experience at Bapco during summer vacations and have a rewarding and challenging career at Bapco upon successful completion of their studies.so all their candidates are expected to contribute to their future growth.Current studentsare doing Chemical and petroleum Engineering

Ministry of Interiors:They sponsor their staff and the most qualified children of their staff to study abroad. They expect them to work for them upon successful completion of the program.They send their students do Forensic Science and Public Policy.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs: They also sponsor their employees to do graduate work and expect them to return to their work upon completion of the program.

Ministry of Education:They have multitudes of scholarships in Bahrain, the UK,Australia.Newzealand,Jordon,Saudi Arabia,Qatar,Kuwait,the UAE ,Oman, and Egypt and they are in the process of sending students to France as they used to do in the 70’s and 80’s. The Program places no restrictions on students on where they work upon graduation. They started sending to the US in 2007.They sponsor the most qualified those who couldn’t make it as finalists in the CPIS they select them and they send the top achievers in high schools.Current students are doing Special Education, Engineering,Human Resources management,Education,Communication and computer Science, Business Administration,InternationalRelations

Bahrain Defense Force: They sponsor their officers and their children if they qualify. Their students are expected to work with them and contribute in their future growth. The Cultural Office places many of their students in certain universities

ALBA(Aluminum Bahrain): their strategy fits right within Bahrain’s Vision 2030’s economic and social principles since they run parallel with the vision of the country and community in which they operate.Aluminium Bahrain (Alba)'s commitment to empower the next generation of Bahrainis with career skills by sponsoring them to universities.They expect them to contribute in their economic development.ALBA sends students to do Chemical Engineering

Self sponsored students: Self-sponsored students :

The Cultural office stays in touch with the Bahraini students including the Self-sponsored students through face book. We forward their resumes to banks, government agencies with letters of recommendations based on their achievements .We announce job opportunities and internships with major companies in Bahrainor we guide them to apply through Labour Market Regulatory Authority

Labour Market Regulatory Authority:

We guide our Self-sponsored Graduates ,sponsored graduates from the Ministry of Education and unemployed Bahtains to apply through the Labour Market Regulatory Authority which has many offices scattered in different areas in Bahrain.
(LMRA) was established in the interest of reform. It is a government entity dedicated to reform Bahrain’s labour market.
The Labour Market Regulatory Authority faces substantial tasks and challenges to provide job opportunities for all the kingdom’s citizens and to find suitable solutions to the issues facing it. The Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) in association with Tamkeen creates different required training programmes to fulfill the needs of the labour market and create well-paid jobs for the Bahrainis.
LMRA play an important role in enhancing Bahrain reputation as a centre for academic & training excellence in line with the Kingdom’s 2030 vision”.
This opportunity would be a valuable experience and would give students a chance to work on challenging and interesting projects, as well as give them good exposure to the region. I would appreciate if you could pass the message along to students who would be available during the abovementioned period. Good luck and all the bestExample:The LMRA invites fresh or recent university graduates to join new and different training programs that they launch. e.g. "Applied Skills Training Programme. The Programme will be conducted for the LMRA by an International Technology company and will consist of both classroom and on-the job training. The Programme consists of full-time employment and will take approximately two years to complete, with the trainees joining the LMRA IT Directorate on successful completion of the Programme.

Tamkeen:

Tamkeen is Bahrain’s independent authority was also established in August 2006 as part of Bahrain’s national reform initiatives and Bahrain Economic Vision 2030.

is tasked with developing Bahrain’s private sector and positioning it as the key driver of economic development. ....Tamkeen’s main objectives are to support Bahrainis to become the employees of choice, and to support high quality private sector job creation.

It formulates strategic and operational plans to enhance the overall prosperity of Bahrain by investing in Bahraini employability and job creation ..

As of December 2011, Tamkeen has injected more than BD 166 million into the private sector through its programmes, targeting over 100,000 Bahrainis and enterprises.

Tamkeen conducted a skills gap survey to find out the needs of different sectors in Bahrainand then they translated those findings in real empowerment and training action on the ground. Through the Skills Gap Survey Tamkeen realized the needs of each sector and accordingly they worked to boost the number of specialists and employers such as :

Tamkeen’s Bahrain Airport Services Aircraft Engineering Training Centre: aircraft engineers to meet Bahrain Aviation industries future growth, Tamkeen has provided numerous sponsorship opportunities for students aspiring to specialized in this field and other fields(62 Bahraini students are currently getting four years of intensive theory and practical aircraft engineering training program.

Bahrain’sPilot training program: It is fully subsidized by EDB to cover tuition fees of the Commercial Pilot license with license from Oxford Aviation Academy in the UK and they are`trained in Arizona for 4 months.
In 2012, Tamkeen’s plan is to launche more than 20 new initiatives. These programmes range from training aimed at developing human capital – whether students, employees, employers, or job seekers - to match acquired skills to market requirements, and other programmes which enhance the productivity of individuals through promoting awareness of successful practices in the private sector. For enterprises, Tamkeen provides professional consulting services to raise their performance, and facilitates access to financing to bridge the enterprise financing gap.

Tamkeen launched 25 programmes under its Employment Support initiative. It signed training and employment agreements with leading companies in the sectors of aviation, manufacturing, call centers, engineering, healthcare, marketing, administration, finance and banking, public relations, and logistics. Some 3,800 Bahrainis are expected to benefit from these programmes.

And Tamkeen signed training and empowerment agreement to train and employ 100 Bahraini secondary school and university graduates .The agreement is part of Tamkeen's Employment Support scheme which helps private sector companies identify their employment requirements and fill those vacancies with Bahrainis after providing them with the necessary training.

Different government entities are extremely proud of the partnership with Tamkeen, which enabled many young Bahraini men & women, to enroll in highly professional and sought after fields such as of Aircraft Engineering

Tamkeen’sGlobal Internship Programme: