The Project, to be implemented over a period of 24 months, aims at creating the required mechanisms to develop and administer professional standards for jobs in all sectors in the Kingdom. An expected outcome for such standards is to increase the awareness between individuals on their prospective jobs, their roles, and required skills and knowledge in the field.
In the long term, the projects aims at achieving a number of objectives, namely matching skills with labor market requirements, minimizing the use of foreign manpower, enhancing the efficiency of workers in Bahrain’s labor market, encouraging employment of Bahraini manpower to replace expatriates, improving the wages system, promoting career development and boosting individual demand on vocational education.
The National Occupational Standards project will start with putting professional standards for 125 existing professions, taking into consideration the priorities of those professions as determined by the Supreme Council for Vocational Training and its partners in six different sectors, namely retail, hospitality, industry, construction, banking and information and communication technology.
The Project will also include creating mechanisms to introduce, develop and manage professional standards, determine the number of employees in the Supreme Council for Vocational Training and other organizations aspiring to develop their professional standards, as well as facilitating the guidance and direction of jobs affected by the implementation of the National Occupational Standards project.
Once implemented, the project will provide a number of advantages and great benefit to individuals, employees, businesses, and education and training providers. For individuals and employees, the Project will contribute to achieving professional career development by allowing them the opportunity to self-evaluate their performance in their current and prospective jobs, and will enhance employee job satisfaction by encouraging employees to develop their skills and competencies which would reflect on the level of their job performance.
Project benefits to employers and businesses include increase productivity, improved quality of products and services, the enhancement and development of employee skills, and facilitating employee selection, which would result in reduced expenses and better job descriptions by specifying the skills required for every job.
The Project will help education and training providers by providing education and training plans needed for employees which commensurate with labor market requirements, as well as developing and introducing new certified programs at work sites to serve as a source for development of national professional standards.