Kuwait Finance House-Bahrain (KFH-Bahrain) has launched the ‘Wa’ed’ Graduate Trainee Programme which is a structured and customised programme. 

 

Organised by KFH-Bahrain in partnership with the Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance (BIBF), it aims to train and enhance the employability of Bahraini graduates and to equip them with the necessary skills required to enter and succeed in the job market. 

 

Twenty Bahraini graduates have been welcomed to the programme at a launching ceremony held at the BIBF premises.

 

Key guests

In attendance were key guests from the Central Bank of Bahrain namely Khalid Hamad Al-Hamad, the Executive Director of Banking Supervision; and Khawla Ebrahim, the Acting Director of Islamic Financial Institutions Supervision Directorate; and from the Bahrain Association of Banks, Dr Waheed Al Qassim, the Chief Executive Officer have all attended the launching ceremony where they expressed their commendation of the efforts of KFH-Bahrain and BIBF in investing in the development of Bahraini youth and praised the strides of KFH-Bahrain towards increasing the career opportunities available for graduates. In addition, Dr Ahmed AlShaikh, the Director of BIBF, Abdulhakeem Yaqoob Alkhayyat, the Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of KFH–Bahrain as well as a number of representatives from both entities attended the launch ceremony.

 

Al Hamad said: “I would like to urge the participants to seize this opportunity and work towards creating a good impression, in addition to continuing to seek knowledge from diverse, reliable and accredited sources with a focus on discovering their creative skills and enriching them as much as possible. I would like to wish everyone great success in their future career paths.”

 

Alkhayyat said: “As part of our commitment to social responsibility, and our ongoing efforts to support Bahraini youth, we have ensured developing a structured graduate programme which constitutes an enhanced addition to the other existing internship programmes that we continue to offer throughout the year. We, at KFH – Bahrain, are dedicated to introducing and delivering effective development initiatives which aim to elevate national talent; and we aspire through this programme, to enrich the banking and financial services sector with the prominent knowledge, skills and competence of our young talents.”

 

Success skills

Zainalabedin said: “The programme has been structured to allow the graduates to develop workplace success skills with a focus on the core values and priorities which we cherish the most at KFH including shariah compliance, collaboration and teamwork, innovation and a focus on achieving excellence and sustainability; all of which are key principles in everything that we do and deliver at KFH. 

 

“We also highly value the efforts of the Central Bank of Bahrain and the Bahrain Association of Banks in ensuring the development of a universal framework for a national skills-based Internship Programme and ensuring that such a framework is applied and implemented within the Financial Services sector. We, at KFH, have ensured that all elements and core standards of this framework have been embedded in the deliverables of Wa’ed programme; which further enriches the graduates’ experience under this programme.” 

 

The trainees are scheduled to spend the first month of the programme at the BIBF, during which they will receive intensive training courses delivered by qualified BIBF trainers, followed by a series of awareness and educational lectures which will be conducted by a number of experienced employees at KFH - Bahrain. 

 

On job training

Subsequent to that, they will receive on the job training for a period of two months in one of the bank's functions to gain experience and practical skills in specialised fields. 

 

At the end of this first phase, which will be for a total of three months, five participants will be selected for the second phase of the programme, which will be for an additional three months. Participants in this phase will undergo a rotation programme in the various functions of KFH-Bahrain for two months. In the third and final month of this phase, the participants will be assigned to submit and implement an innovative enhancement initiative in the field of digitalisation or another area such as developing new products and services and streamlining work processes.-- TradeArabia News Service