Manama, Bahrain, January 29th, 2008: Under the patronage of His Excellency the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Chairman of the Labour Fund, Dr. Nazar bin Sadiq Al Baharna, BDO Jawad Habib launched the Labour Fund's Career Progression Programme (CPP), a new programme created to support the human capital development of the national workforce of the private sector in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

The Career Progression Programme designed and fully funded by the Labour Fund, was awarded to BDO Jawad Habib in a public tender last August to execute and manage. The CPP is specifically designed to address underemployment or skills deficiencies that hinder career progression opportunities for Bahraini workers in the private sector.

The Chairman of the Labour Fund H.E. Dr. Nazar Al Baharna said: "This programme comes as an interpretation of the vision of His Highness the Crown Prince Shaikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, in developing human resources and the belief that the tripartite equation consisting of training and development, the appropriate working environment and financial reward will lead to achieving higher productivity rates that would benefit both sides, the employee and the employer.

Like other Labour Fund initiatives, this programme aims to support Bahraini employees to be the "employees of choice" and to assist the private sector to keep pace with reforms in the labour market. Therefore, the CPP is a great positive step towards better a work environment and financial reward for Bahrainis to climb up the career ladders".

The Chairman of BDO Jawad Habib, Mr. Jawad Habib said "The Programme is designed to benefit both employer and employee where the former will benefit from improving employee skills and productivity through training, better employee retention rates, improve overall productivity and profits of the business and will get a free opportunity for gaining human resources planning and training consultancy services from professional and qualified consultants. Since 1980, BDO Jawad Habib has established an enviable reputation as a leading force in the Human Resources, Training and Advisory profession, responsive to its client's needs by providing solid local and international expertise.  

"Everyone is a winner with this pioneering project!" enthuses Dr Ahmed Abdul Ghani Al Shaikh, Vice President of the Human Capital Development Department at the Labour Fund. "The Career Progression will inject more than BD 12,000,000 into the kingdom's economy with positive multiplier effects on both skill and income levels."

"Benefits to employers include savings made on the cost of conducting the training needs analysis, the cost of the training programme, the 12-month subsidisation of the salary in addition to expert advice on related HR know-how provided by a reputed consulting firm. The project also presents a great business opportunity for training providers who alone have been spared over half of the project budget in order for them to help with building the necessary skills and competencies," added Dr Al Shaikh.

"The project provides a valuable career progression opportunity to 6,500 Bahraini employees across the private sector and also helps their employers achieve the necessary increase in productivity through linking the improvement in monthly income to the acquisition of skills."

Dr. Ehsan Ghurbal, CPP Project Manager said:" CPP is aimed at developing the full time employed Bahraini workforce in the Private sector earning a monthly basic salary between BD200 to 400, in order to improve their skills and hence entitle them for a salary increase of a minimum BD50 after studying the developmental needs of those individuals and companies. The programme is targeting all the economic private sector companies and caters for any number of beneficiaries from each organisation". 

The Programme works through a mutually agreed framework between the parties concerned to achieve higher productivity by implementing state-of-the art human resource development tools to achieve the desired objectives.  The CPP is aimed at improving and developing requisite skills that suit job requirements of the employees.  The programme will be implemented over a period of three and a half years, during which 6,500 selected Bahraini employees will be enrolled in the programme. This period will be the execution phase by BDO Jawad Habib as project manager undergoing continuous support and monitoring from the Labour Fund's Human Capital Development team.

Dr Ghurbal added. "A Career Progression Centre (CPC) on the 3rd floor at Al Ezz Tower (off-the Exhibition Avenue) has been opened exclusively to receive requests, enquiries and support the execution of this programme.

Employers in the private sector can participate in the programme by nominating their eligible Bahraini employees. Registration forms are available online at www.bdojawadhabib.com

For more information and details about the programme, employers who are companies in the private sector can email: info.cpp@bdojawadhabib.com, while Training Service Providers who are interested in supporting this programme may email: tsp.cpp@bdojawadhabib.com.

-Ends-

BDO JawadHabib Consulting
In order to implement the CPP, the Labour Fund has engaged BDO JawadHabib Consulting (BDOJHC).    It will be responsible for the project implementation and management of the CPP and will handle all administrative and promotional activities specific to the work.

BDO JawadHabib is a leading management consultancy firm in Bahrain, which originally commenced operations on 1st January 1980. BDO JawadHabib is a Member Firm of BDO International, one of the world's largest professional services firms. BDO provides advisory, auditing, tax and consultancy services on a globally integrated basis with over 626 offices in more than 111 countries.

For over twenty years, BDO JawadHabib has dedicated itself to the service of their clients, and has built up an unrivalled knowledge of the legal and commercial environment in the Kingdome of Bahrain. BDO JawadHabib has established an enviable reputation as a leading force in the HR, Training and Advisory profession, responsive to its clients' needs by providing solid local and international expertise.

The Labour Fund
The CPP is designed and fully sponsored by the Labour Fund to benefit the Bahraini employees in the private sector.

The Labour Fund is a semi-autonomous entity which formulates strategic and operational plans to enhance the overall prosperity of the private sector in the Kingdom of Bahrain by investing in Bahraini employability, skill enhancement of existing employees and enterprise growth. The Labour Fund aims to assist the private sector to increase its productivity and to become the engine of economic growth.

Under the CPP; the Labour Fund subsidises the HR consulting fees, the training cost and the salary increase of BD50 for the first 12 months.

Mailing Address:
P.O Box: 787, Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain
Tel: +973 17 53 00 77
Fax: +973 17 53 00 88
Web: www.bdojawadhabib.com

For more information, please contact
Yahya Al Mukharriq,
Promoseven Weber Shandwick PR,
Bahrain,
Mobile: +973 36688943;
Office: +973 17500777;
Fax: 17918566,
email: yahya.mukharriq@promoseven.com

© Press Release 2008