An analysis of how men and women are utilising the new opportunities for business development and training that the Labour Fund (LF) is introducing into Bahrain’s workplace has shown that women are quick to grab training and educational routes but slower to strike out on their own as business owners.
 
Acting CEO Abdulellah Al Qassimi was quick to point out that the LF 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 the LF is an equal-opportunity organisation,' said Al Qassimi.

'But given that a stunning 90 per cent 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.'
 
Over the past year, the Labour Fund has initiated courses for Bahrainis in 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 516 women have enrolled for the programmes.
 
Analysis shows that nursing is still a top favourite with 294 of the 346 students in Labour Fund-supported nursing courses at the College of Health Sciences and the Royal College of Surgeons – Ireland being Bahraini women.

Information Technology (66 per cent), Accountancy (60 per cent) and HR management (53 per cent) are the other preferred ‘hot careers’ for Bahraini women if enrolment in LF-supported courses are analysed for women’s preference.
 
Newly emerging career options for women are also being promoted by the Labour Fund in the fields of call centre management (an LF-Gulf Air initiative) that has attracted 36 per cent women candidates and Bahrain’s burgeoning retail service (32 per cent women).
 
Al Qassimi pointed out that although Bahrain's Constitution provides for equality and equal opportunity in healthcare, welfare, education, and employment, in practice, women do have to struggle to get a foothold in the competitive workplace.
 
'I wouldn't label it as discrimination but there is certainly a little wariness about employing women in traditionally 'male' job sectors in manufacturing, construction and industry as opposed to the service sector,' he said.
The best indicator that Bahraini women were preparing to actively seek out new careers came with the initiation of the LF’s aeronautical engineering course in collaboration with Bahrain Airport Services in which seven of the 62 who enrolled were women.

This 11 per cent representation in a career path that is traditionally considered ‘male-oriented’ is a heartening sign that times were changing, said vice-president for Human Capital Development, Dr Ahmed Abdul Ghani Al Shaikh.
 
Under the LF's Enterprise Development Scheme, nine businesswomen have sought assistance to upgrade their SME's technology, 15 have worked with the LF for upgrading their Business Information Systems and 16 have applied for overall Business Development, which LF officials say, is an encouraging sign that women business owners understand the need to upgrade businesses and stay competitive.

The LF will help women to build on the success of women in the private sector and train them through its programmes for challenging career growth and nation-building, Al Qassimi said.  LF officials said women's groups had been very receptive to working with the LF and the response so far had been unexpectedly strong.  – TradeArabia News Service<