Manama, May 22 (BNA): The Labor Fund (Tamkeen) announced its results for the first quarter of 2023.
Tamkeen has shown significant progress in its previously announced strategic priorities for this year. In line with its main missions, the fund revealed earlier this year its strategic goals that focus on four main priorities: facilitating increased economic participation of Bahrainis, providing training that is in line with labor market needs in new and emerging skills, as well as supporting the growth and development of enterprises and ecosystem development. All of which lead to a positive economic impact and sustainable growth.
Tamkeen has been mandated to empower Bahrainis to become the first choice for employment in the private sector, and from the outset has focused its efforts on achieving this goal.
The results of the first quarter of this year showed significant progress in strategic priorities due to the focus on good training and the proactive approach adopted with institutions, which prompted Tamkeen to support the employment of more than 2,950 Bahrainis, 16% of whom are in good jobs compared to 11% in the first quarter of last year.
Tamkeen has supported the training of more than 2,480 Bahrainis to build their skills and enhance their chances of entering the labor market.
In line with the strategic focus and strengthening the economic participation of Bahrainis, the Fund has focused its efforts on enabling the participation of Bahraini women and facilitating the entry of young people into the labor market.
These efforts led to an increase in support for Bahraini women, as 1,350 women were supported for employment and 1,500 women were supported for training. Moreover, Tamkeen’s support for youth has expanded, as the number of Bahrainis aged 35 and under who have benefited from Tamkeen’s employment and training support has reached more than 4,860.
Tamkeen’s goals also include enabling the private sector to become the main engine of economic growth in the Kingdom. Focusing on this goal and promoting development and growth within the private sector, Tamkeen has supported more than 1,800 enterprises of all sizes and across various economic sectors through various types of support such as supporting their operations and developing human capital, with 87% of the enterprises supported. Being small and medium enterprises, 31% of the companies supported through Tamkeen’s pilot projects programs come from key economic sectors.
“We start the year with great success in advancing our targets to achieve our main goal of driving greater economic impact for the Kingdom of Bahrain. We plan to continue to closely monitor our performance to ensure we are on the right track towards achieving success,” said Maha Mufeez, CEO of Tamkeen.
“We have established our KPIs to support our organization’s strategy and to help us stay focused on our goals and streamline our efforts in achieving them. These KPIs help us track our progress through the year and ensure that our support is being used in the optimal way.”
The fund is focused on driving continuous positive impact on the national economy by adopting transparency at all levels, and as such, the relevant teams closely monitor the performance of the supported institutions to identify potential violations and take necessary action. As a result, Tamkeen took action on 61 violations in the first quarter of 2023 which represents less than 1% of the 7,230 applications processed during the first quarter.
The Tamkeen Violations Committee works diligently to identify any violations that may affect the effective use of Tamkeen’s support and take necessary action as appropriate in accordance with applicable policies and procedures, while also ensuring that customers are aware of these policies and the consequences. Non-compliance with the terms and conditions of the program. Tamkeen also cooperates with the General Directorate of Anti-Corruption and Economic and Electronic Security on an ongoing basis in related matters and will continue to refer to the Directorate when needed in the future.
Tamkeen launched several initiatives in the first quarter of the year to support the employment of Bahraini doctors in private sector institutions. This includes providing training and recruitment support, as well as incentives to organizations with high Bahrainization rates in their medical staff.
The fund has signed partnership agreements with leading local and international institutions to train and employ Bahrainis according to the needs of the labor market, such as the Fives Group, which will provide specialized training opportunities for Bahrainis. As well as agreements to support the growth and expansion of various local institutions and factories.
FKN