Bahrainis are being urged to grab the massive job opportunities opening up in the kingdom's rapidly expanding hospitality and retail industries.
Thousands of new jobs are on the way, say officials and industry leaders.
At the moment, Bahrainis account for 23 per cent of the 8,025 employees in the hospitality sector (20pc male and 3pc female), it was revealed on Wednesday.
'Bahrain has unlimited job opportunities in the hospitality and retail sector, including food and beverages and fast food sector as well,' said Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Labour Fund board chairman Dr Nazar Al Baharna.
'More job opportunities will be available with the booming development happening in Bahrain and the rising number of malls, restaurants and hotels in the country.'
He was speaking as he visited the Bahrain Institute for Hospitality and Retail (BIHR) premises in Budaiya, where the fund is sponsoring many of the students.
Dr Al Baharna toured the BIHR and talked with officials and students.
He urged students not to be discouraged and keep going on, saying that making mistakes was not failure, but will help them learn.
'Never give up, take it as experience and have ambitions to rise up. Every success story has at least one failure behind it,' said Dr Al Baharna.
He told our sister publication, the Gulf Daily News that the role of the Labour Fund was to help unemployed Bahrainis, whether university graduates or school drop-outs, find jobs that could support them in the future.
A key aim was to make Bahrainis the preferred option for the private sector and to encourage more to go into the private sector, rather than depend on government jobs.
The Labour Fund is sending students to the BIHR to train them in the hospitality and retail sectors, where there are many opportunities, said Dr Al Baharna.
Its agreement with the BIHR envisages the training of 1,870 Bahrainis.
Of these, 300 will get training for middle-level positions and 50 will study for bachelor degree in hospitality management.
Twenty will train to become certified human resources managers,' which is a globally-recognised professional certificate awarded by the American Hotel and Lodging Association.
The agreement also includes the training of 650 Bahrainis in the retail sector , for which, the institute follows the curriculum of the Australian Retail Association.
'We have done a skill gap test to see what the market needs, and from it we chose the sector we need to focus on, which is the hospitality sector, a very promising field that pays well if training is offered and that is where the BIHR comes in,' said Dr Al Baharna.
He said that the Labour Fund was working closely with private and governmental orgnisations to place Bahrainis registered as unemployed.
'We have now been able to employ 120 Bahrainis in various hospitality and retail jobs thanks to the BIHR, which has found the positions for hem,' he added.
Another 180 have been placed in the governmental sector, with more jobs to come to bring the figure up to 500 .
Findings from a nationwide study into skills gaps will be released next February, said Dr Al Baharna.
BIHR chairman Mohammed Dadabhai said tourism offered massive new opportunities.
'Tourism is creating new job opportunities for Bahrainis, and creating a great opportunity for us in the BIHR to give them a first-hand chance to learn the basic skills of hospitality,' he said.
'We support the Labour Fund's policy, they are investing back on Bahrainis to serve their country and find better opportunities for themselves, which is a positive thing.'
Dadabhai said the hospitality sector could consume around 10,000 jobs, which is an enormous potential for unemployed citizens.
'Today with all the development happening in Bahrain, there is a requirement of labour force in the hospitality and retail sector and also in food and beverages sector,' he added.
The BIHR is supplying the uniforms and books and the Labour Fund is giving each sponsored student an allowance of BD60 ($159) per month and a bonus of BD120 every three months. - TradeArabia News Service