Bahrain training industry on the verge of collapse

Manama : Training institutes in Bahrain are on the verge of collapse as their income dropped by 95 per cent this year, members of the sector said yesterday.

Business owners said they are uncertain about how long their companies will survive as they are financially struggling due to various reasons. They cited some decisions of the government and Tamkeen as major factors leading to their unfavourable situation, adding that their struggles began as responsibilities of the High Council for Vocational Training was transferred to Tamkeen.

The training institute representatives explained that the private sector companies are dependent on government funding to train their Bahraini staff. However, after the transfer of responsibilities to Tamkeen, obtaining funds has become more complicated and because of this the companies have stopped training their employees with the training institutes, they claimed.

Tamkeen’s Training and Wage Support Scheme has also come under heavy criticism. The representatives said that this scheme kept private companies away from training their employees.

“The businesses are not in a position to accept this scheme, it is not just me who is saying this, we have surveyed many companies and they all say the same thing,” Bahrain Society of The Private Training Institutes President Dr. Ahmed Al Obaidli told DT News. “This does not mean that they do not want training and support from Tamkeen, they do.” 

“Tamkeen say they have spent millions last year and that they will spend millions this year. But we do not see any of it; If it was spent on training, then training institutes would have some business. However, I can assure you that we have no business and we have laid off half of our staff,” he added.

Explaining why the scheme is opposed by the institutes, Managing Director of a leading training institute, who did not want to be named, said: “Our income is dependent on private companies choosing to train Bahrainis. With the scheme, any private company who trains Bahrainis will have to increase the salary of these employees after their training. Basically, the funding for training is dependent upon the employers raising the salaries of these employees. 

“The minimum amount that they should increase is BD50, which is a lot. In this economic climate, nobody wants to increase salaries so quickly. When they do not train their employees, we have no business,” she added, “This year we have made no money at all, our clients have completely stopped training their staff.”

15 Institutes closed down as per society estimates

At least 15 institutions have been closed down, according to the society president. 

“At the moment we are dying, we have no business. We are sinking, business has come down dramatically compared to last year and some institutes, has zero income now. To my knowledge that there are 15 to 20 institutes closed down. Tamkeen say there are only 69 institutions, but we know that there were at least 85, it came down to 69 after the institutes were shut down,” Dr. Al Obaidli said.

“If we are bringing in zero income, how can we survive? Now, it has come to a stage that unless we have an alternate source of income, we cannot survive. But this is the sole source of income for many of us. We know that Tamkeen is very organised and capable, so we urge them to find a solution for us,” he added.

Meeting Held 

Owners of training companies discussed the issues faced by them in a meeting held yesterday at Bahrain Society of Engineers premises in Juffair. They discussed how they can overcome the problems and what the government needs to do to help them. Tamkeen’s Training and Wage Support Scheme was repeatedly questioned during the meeting. 

“I want to ask Tamkeen if there has been any single Bahraini who has been trained under the scheme. Eighty-five training companies have had no business in the past seven months, that means there is something wrong. That means this is not working, we need an alternate solution now,” said one of the participants.