DAVOS, SWITZERLAND – The Bahrain Labor Fund, known as Tamkeen, has joined forces with the World Economic Forum (WEF) to launch the Bahrain Skills and Gender Parity Accelerator. This initiative was presented in Davos, in line with the theme of the 55th Annual Meeting, “Collaboration for the Intelligent Age”. The program aims to bridge the gender skills gap within fast-growing industries and improve the participation of Bahraini workers in the current and future local workforce.
Bahrain is building a future-ready workforce, with a focus on digital and STEM skills education and reskilling to address the global talent shortage. Recognized as a regional leader in gender parity and pay equity, Bahrain ranks among the top five in the world for girls outperforming boys in education, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2024 and the World Bank.
WEF’s Sriram Gutta highlighted the success of the initiative’s first cycle, which mobilized more than $2.5 million in funding and trained more than 54,500 individuals. The second cycle will focus on increasing gender equality in high-growth sectors and future jobs. The Bahrain Accelerator is part of a network of over 35 accelerators around the world, promoting transformative local initiatives.
The Labor Fund (Tamkeen) has been instrumental in Bahrain’s progress, offering government-backed training and programs aimed at closing gender gaps in male-dominated industries. Established in 2024, Skills Bahrain is Tamkeen’s initiative to maximize the country’s human capital, working with various stakeholders to provide market intelligence and identify skills gaps.
The accelerator will be coordinated by Skills Bahrain and led by the Bahrain Economic Development Board and Tamkeen, with plans to partner with leading private sector entities. The next phase will involve gathering insights from these organizations and using the Forum’s global research to conduct a cross-sectoral analysis to determine current and future gender skills gaps, laying the foundations for a talent development strategy.
Bahrain’s strategic investments in empowering women and upskilling its young, bilingual workforce have resulted in the country being ranked 4th in the world for women in management positions and women with degrees, according to the Institute for Management Development’s (IMD) World Competitiveness Rankings 2024 The diversity of the national workforce and status as a leading service hub have attracted major companies such as AWS and Citi, with the latter establishing its Global Technology Center in Bahrain in 2021
This news is based on a press release.
This article was generated with the help of AI and reviewed by an editor. See our T&C for more information.
