The National Institute for Industrial Training (NIIT), upbeat over successes in devising useful training programmes that have helped local youths gain employment, is now looking forward to introducing new courses that will build Bahrain’s manpower to support its industrial development.

Over the past three years the institute has provided staff to companies including Arab Shipbuilding and Repair Yard Company (Asry) and has contracted with the Ministry of Labour and Tamkeen, an organisation that supports Bahrain’s private sector, for the training of youths who will fulfill responsibilities in technical and industrial fields.

NIIT has introduced tailor-made short-term and long-term courses. Ali Al Noory, its business development and projects manager, told this magazine that one of its main talents is screening job applicants and shortlisting them through a process of tests before recommending them to employers for approvals. When the company outlines its skills requirements, NIIT signs a contract to train the recruits, offering the employer a “capable readymade product.”

The institute has a pool of instructors, mainly Bahrainis but also expatriates from outside the GCC region.

Following the successful completion of a number of courses, the NIIT plans to extend the range of training programmes for both short and long durations. Currently short courses cover soft skills including time management, work ethics, basic safety, basic computer knowledge and elementary industrial skills, and could last from 16 hours, stretched across two days, to 80 hours spread out over a number of days.

Al Noory: feedback encouraging

Long-term programmes last nine months to three years and could cover more intense subjects in mechanical, fabrication and welding, and electrical fields.

NIIT-trained students have managed to gain employment in businesses run by entrepreneurs such as Ibrahim Khalil Kanoo and Yusuf Khalil Al Moyyayed and in companies including National Motors, Zayani Motors, Euro Motors, BRC Weldmesh, Mohammed Fakhro and Behbehani. Asry has a major ongoing contract with NIIT for training recruits to help out in its ship and offshore rigs repair and ship building operations. The project is funded jointly by Asry and Tamkeen.

“Asry has a number of staff that will retire. Their commitment to society is to recruit Bahrainis as much as possible. We tap into raw material – fresh technical graduates – and train them as per what Asry is looking for, and we present the final product which is a capable technical staff,” said Al Noory.

“This is not the first time we are doing a long-term course. There have been several others in more or less similar technical and engineering fields, although Asry has some special requirements because of the nature of its operations. NIIT training prepares recruits to perform all the work necessary for Asry’s repair jobs.”

The Asry training is planned for a main stretch of two years, but outstanding trainees will be selected for a third year for an advanced course.

The NIIT building at Bahrain International Investment Park

NIIT has an ongoing long-term programme to train 30 recruits under a Ministry of Labour-funded scheme.  In another Tamkeen-funded scheme, NIIT will train recruits under the Auto Technician Programme over a 12-month period. Training has begun for a group of 21, of whom 11 will be working for Kanoo Ibrahim Khalil Kanoo and 10 for Al Moayyed.

NIIT recently completed an Engineering Multiskill Programme (EMS) financed by Tamkeen and which ran for nine months. It covered the disciplines of automotives, mechanical engineering, welding and electrical engineering. The contact required NIIT to train 100 job-seekers for employment. Already 94 have been employed.

“We are committed to providing the highest quality training to Bahrainis, and our partnership with NIIT has ensured that job-seekers in the engineering field are prepared for employment,” said Mahmood Al Kooheji, chief executive of Tamkeen.

Upon completion of the multi-skills course, candidates receive internationally recognised qualifications awarded by NIIT’s official UK partner Wigan and Leigh College.

Al Noory assures organisations interested in filling positions: “With our experience in screening job-seekers and in training, we’re the most suitable organisation to manage programmes. You will get your product ready for duty.”

The institute is encouraged by the feedback. “We get repeated business. Most of the companies that participated in any of our programmes, for example, EMS, have participated again in our newer courses, such as the Auto Technician Programme. That holds true for short courses as well. We do a needs analysis and after that we present a training action plan.”

An e-newsletter that NIIT sends out helps job-seekers keep abreast of upcoming programmes at the institute.

The institute has plans to launch short and long courses for overseas students in all industrial and technical fields where it has gained expertise. Al Noory says the company has received interest from Saudi Arabia and Oman and it is likely it will first consider helping Saudi Eastern Province companies considering they are just across the Bahrain-Saudi Causeway.

In fact, NIIT once held a course for Saudi Aramco, sending a welding instructor there. Al Noory said it was “a resounding success.”

NIIT has the nod from the Quality Assurance Authority in Education and Training (QAAET) which is a semi-government authority that audits educational and training institution. At the last audit it secured Grade 2 (Good) and is expecting to gain Grade 1 (Outstanding) soon.

“NIIT is considered one of the most important training providers in Bahrain,” said Al Noory. It has 53 shareholders including industrial leaders with Kuwait Finance House being the main one.