Tamkeen empowerment strategy opens doors for U.S. and Arab women investors at key summit

At the Women Business Leaders Summit® (WBLS) currently taking place in Bahrain, the Bahraini semi-government agency is a key strategic partner and has sought to give the assembled women business leaders from Arab countries and America, a glimpse of Bahrain's business-friendly environment which takes women entrepreneurs and professionals as seriously as it does men.

Tamkeen's VP for Admin and Finance, Ms. Suha Karzoun, gave a presentation at the summit on Tamkeen's training programmes and its initiatives to assist investors and entrepreneurs to make the most of Bahrain's investor-friendly climate and how Tamkeen programmes have been designed to support businesses and attract new investors.

The WBLS is a powerful programme that engages women from different cultures, through commerce, in a common mission of creating opportunity, participation, dignity of purpose, and tangible results. The Summit, which began in 2002, brings together women CEOs from the United States with women CEOs from the Middle East. Past and current participants include Ann Kaplan with Goldman Sachs, PJ Mitchell with IBM and Rebecca Rhoads with Raytheon.

In Bahrain, Tamkeen has consistently given equal-opportunities to both men and women. An analysis of how Tamkeen's new programmes and opportunities have been utilised has shown that women are quick to grab training and educational routes opened up by Tamkeen.

Chief Executive Abdulellah Al Qassimi said that Tamkeen believes in delivering equal opportunities to both genders and did not specifically tailor programmes for women alone. However, he said, the statistics reveal that Bahraini women are cautiously emerging out of the traditional 'caregiver' careers of teaching and nursing to explore 'male' domains in finance and aviation.

"We do not specifically go out to target Bahraini women because Tamkeen is an equal-opportunity organisation,"

Al Qassimi said>

"But given that a stunning 90% of the Bahraini university graduates looking for a job are women, we believe that our training and career progression programmes do help to open new doors for Bahraini women in the workplace and in the important job of nation-building." he added.

Over the past 15 months, Tamkeen has initiated courses for Bahrainis in more than eight key areas that offer career growth and whether it is traditionally "women's choice" areas like nursing, HR management and retail industry or newer arenas like IT development and aeronautical engineering, a total of 892 women have enrolled for the programmes.

Analysis shows that nursing is still a top favourite with 334 of the 396 students in Tamkeen-supported nursing courses at the College of Health Sciences and the Royal College of Surgeons - Ireland being Bahraini women. Information Technology (67%), Accountancy (37 %) and HR management (61 %) are the other preferred 'hot careers' for Bahraini women if enrolment in Tamkeen-supported courses are analysed for women's preference.

Newly emerging career options for women are also being promoted by Tamkeen in the fields of call centre management that has attracted 58 % women candidates and Bahrain's burgeoning retail service (67% women).

The best indicator that Bahraini women were preparing to actively seek out new careers came with the initiation of the Tamkeen's aeronautical engineering course in collaboration with Bahrain Airport Services in which 7 of the 62 who enrolled were women.

For women entrepreneurs too, Tamkeen has opened new doors by making instruments of finance available through its loans initiatives with Shamil Bank (Nibraas), the Bahrain Development Bank and Venture Capital Fund. The agency also offers leadership training to business owners and senior management and invests in processes and technology upgrades in SMEs and women entrepreneurs can utilise these options to keep abreast of winning world business trends.

Ms. Karzoun said:

"At Tamkeen, we have seen a lot of women enrolling in business development programmes which is a clear indicator that given the right training and development tools, women have the opportunity to progress and strike out on their own."

Tamkeen is currently working on a number of training programmes targeting women in collaboration with various interest groups.
"We are working closely with the Supreme Council for Women and other associations such as Bahrain Businesswomen's Society and the Businesswomen's committee in the Chamber of Commerce on new initiatives. It is more than just training - it is about empowerment and enablement as well for both - the women and for employers," said Ms. Karzoun.

Tamkeen will help women to build on their successes in the private sector and train them through its programmes for challenging career growth and nation-building, Al Qassimi said, adding that women have been very receptive in working with Tamkeen and the response so far has been very strong.