Alba honours graduates of vocational training programme

The ceremony, which was held under the patronage of His Excellency the Minister of Labour Dr Majeed bin Mohsin Al Alawi, underlined Alba's commitment in encouraging its employees to enhance their knowledge base, understand and surpass their potential and achieve all-round productivity.

The Undersecretary for the Minister of Labour, Jameel Humaidan praised Alba's outstanding role in empowering its employees through training and development and enabling them to accomplish the kind of success that matches Alba's stature and reputation.

Mr. Humaidan said:

"The cooperation between the executive management and Alba Union is undeniable and ideal, and brings numerous benefits not only to the employees but to the company as well. We, at the Ministry of Labour, are proud to witness such a fine example of cooperation that exists to serve the interests of the employees."

Mr. Humaidan made this statement during the ceremony in the presence of the Alba Chief Executive, Ahmed Saleh Al Noaimi, the General Manager of Bahrain Training Institute, Abdul Hameed Saleh as well as Alba officials, the graduates and their families.

He added, "Training has always been a key element and one of the main objectives to build a society. We, at Alba, are committed to providing the highest quality of technical and industrial training and support it with an annual budget of over BD3m. We have also enlisted the assistance of a team of professionally qualified and experienced trainers and departmental experts in order to empower Bahrainis, which - in return - ensure the growth and development of the company."

"2008 has been a very successful year in terms of training. More than 2,643 employees, which is equivalent to approximately 86% of the workforce, received training. We also have recorded about 442,000 man-hours of training during the year 2008. 7% of total man-hours were dedicated to training and development against a global industry standard of 5%," emphasised Mr. Al Noaimi.

"Today, Alba includes 47 supervisors and superintendents, 160 Technical Engineers, 94 skilled fitters, and 4 managers who once joined the vocational training programme at Alba. There are also two manages that left Alba to serve the Kingdom in other positions. Most of the managers and executives, including myself, were part of Alba's training and development programme," he added.

Also, the Chairman of Alba Union, Ali Al Binali, in his speech referred to the outstanding role played by the training department.

He said that the Union works very closely with the executive management to ensure that every Alba employee receives the opportunity for training and development, especially with the establishment of Alba training centre that should contribute to providing training opportunities to all employees to benefit from Alba training programmes.

"Our strong and special relationship with the Ministry of Labour encourages us to request a higher degree than the High National Diploma (HND), which would allow graduates to continue with their studies and acquire a better opportunities in their different specializations," he added.

There was also a presentation by one of the graduates, Saeed Mirza that explained the various phases of the vocational training programme at Alba over the two years.

Later on, the Labour Ministry Undersecretary and Alba Chief Executive, and Alba Union Chairman presented the certificates and memorial gifts for more than 30 graduates.

Alba has been consistently ranked as one of the largest aluminium smelters in the world and is known for its technological strength and innovative policies. It supports numerous community oriented programmes and social activities that have underlined its status as one of Bahrain's leading industrial organisations that remains fully committed to its corporate social responsibility.