UAE’s Albatha Group trained a record of over 4000 employees from across 22 group companies in 3 days, through its Albatha Learning Festival, creating a new corporate training benchmark.

The event which began on January 20, culminated yesterday (January 22), a statement from the company said.

It aims to transform the group into a “Learning Organisation” and includes employees across all group companies, the statement said.

Albatha Group consists companies spread across seven industry sectors such as automotive, consumer, engineering, home products, real estate, healthcare, household and personal care.

In addition to several of its own brands such as Star, Arctic Gold, Al Areesh, Super General, E-City, Glenda, Amara, Taj, the group also represents international brands such as BMW, Rolls Royce, Siemens, AstraZeneca, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Scholl, Lindt, Henkel, Kraft, Akai, and Indesit.

“This event is one-of-its-kind in the history of Albatha, wherein all employees come together as one big family. We aim to be one of the pioneering multinationals in the UAE adopting international best practices,” said Albatha Group MD, Ishaque Noor.

A total of 126 sessions were held highlighting different aspects like safety, creativity and innovation, management and leadership programs, covering all levels of employees in the group.

“Learning and development is a continuous process and it is not only beneficial for the employee and the company but also the economy as a whole. This festival is a concept initiated by the members of Albatha learning and development team led by Sabiha Kazi, group learning and development manager of the Albatha Group,” Noor said.

“Learning and development encompass a variety of components such as training, career development, career management and succession planning. Through this event we are planning to transfer knowledge, tap the hidden potential and create synergies across our 22 group companies. During this three day festival, employees got a taste of different training courses provided by various internal and external learning partners as well as knowledge based competitions, activities and prizes,” said Kazi.

The event was supported by external training consultancies like Blue Ocean Academy, Ideas Management Consultants, Aspire Middle East, Safety & Occupational Services, Interman Training, ILM and Navigate Consulting, she said. – TradeArabia News Service