- Tamkeen announces the biggest achievement since establishment with over 41 K
Bahrainis supported in the private sector through the employment and career
development programs - Announcement of Tamkeen's strategic priorities for 2025 focused on enhancing
the competitiveness of Bahrainis in the private sector, equipping Bahraini talent
with the skills required to achieve career development in the private sector, and
prioritizing growth, digital transformation and sustainability of enterprises.
December 15 th 2024:
The Labour Fund "Tamkeen" held a press conference to highlight the major achievements
accomplished this year, focusing on its pillars aimed at employment support, career
development support, and enterprise support.
On this occasion, Her Excellency Ms. Maha Abdulhameed Mofeez, Chief Executive of the
Labour Fund “Tamkeen” stated that 2024 marked an unprecedented achievement for Tamkeen
since inception, which entailed the employment and career development of 41 thousand
Bahrainis in the private sector. This was achieved by channeling support programs to
accomplish key objectives, including creating quality job opportunities, establishing new
employment pathways in partnership with the private sector, and training and qualifying national
talent to enhance their career development prospects. These efforts align with Tamkeen’s
commitment to sustainable economic growth in the Kingdom of Bahrain to implement national
development plans, most notably the Government Action Plan 2023-2026 and the National
Labour Market Plan 2023-2026 in collaboration with Team Bahrain.
Ms. Alya Alaali, Chief Strategy and Data Analytics Officer of the Labour Fund Tamkeen
introduced Tamkeen's strategic priorities for 2025, focusing on increasing the competitiveness of
local talent in the private sector, equipping Bahrainis with the necessary skills for career
progression, and prioritizing the growth, digitalization, and sustainability of enterprises. This is in
line with Tamkeen’s continued commitment to improving the labor market ecosystem and
facilitating the private sector to increase the impact of its support programs.
Meanwhile, Tamkeen’s Executive Director of Programs and Partnerships Development Mr. Ali
Hasan reaffirmed that since the launch of its programs in November of last year, Tamkeen has
successfully created employment and career development opportunities for 41 thousand
Bahrainis in private sector enterprises. This includes support for over 15,200 Bahrainis through
programs that facilitate their employment in the labor market, as well as supporting more than
25,700 Bahrainis through programs aimed at skill enhancement and career development, and
over 8,500 enterprises through programs promoting growth and productivity.
In addition, an overview was presented of the key performance indicators achieved by Tamkeen
during 2024, which showed that the percentage of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
reached 51% of the total supported through the enterprise support programs, as well as
comprised 54% of the enterprises that received financing support. Furthermore, the percentage
of women that benefited from the various employment support programs was over 40%. As for
professional certification support, there was a growth rate of 88% compared to the previous
year, reflecting the development of skills and career opportunities. Additionally, the average
increase in wages as part of the Wage Increment Program reached BD80.
Internally, Tamkeen has prioritized improving its operations to achieve excellence by leveraging
innovation and digital transformation. This includes providing a fully integrated digital customer
experience, eliminating the need to visit service branches. Key initiatives also include
implementing open banking services for automatic verification of IBANs, introducing electronic
cheques for beneficiaries of enterprise support programs, enhancing data integration with
partners, and deploying other advanced solutions to streamline and simplify service delivery.
To ensure the efficiency of support and its allocation to eligible beneficiaries, Tamkeen has
developed and implemented a comprehensive plan to strengthen shared responsibility in
safeguarding public funds. This includes intensifying monitoring efforts, enhancing collaboration
with relevant entities, launching a whistleblowing policy, granting Tamkeen employees the
authority of Judicial Officers, conducting more than 6 thousand inspection visits in 2024 to
beneficiaries’ and enterprises, and diversifying whistleblowing channels. These channels
include a dedicated reporting webpage on the website with full confidentiality, a hotline, an email
address, and continuous communication with clients during and after the support period to
detect potential violations, in which 54.4 thousand beneficiaries were contacted during 2024.
In 2025, Tamkeen will intensify its monitoring efforts, which will include increasing the number of
inspections to 15,000 visits for individuals benefiting from wage support programs, in addition to
4,000 visits to enterprises benefiting from the various enterprise support programs.
