Here's how Bahrain is building a future-ready workforce by boosting skills and workplace gender equality

Manama, the capital of the Kingdom of Bahrain. The nation's plan to close its gender skills gap has already seen success but more work is being done. Image: Getty Images/Leonid Andronov
Noor Ali Alkhulaif
Minister of Sustainable Development, Ministry of Sustainable Development of Bahrain- Bahrain has significantly improved female participation in sectors such a technology through skills training and education.
- The nation wants to close the gender skills gap across more industries to create a future-ready workforce.
- Its recently launched hybrid skills and gender parity accelerator provides a blueprint for other countries that want to do the same.
Bahrain is a regional leader on gender parity and wage equality, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2024. This has been achieved via robust digital and science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) skills training, as well as high female enrolment in tertiary education. But Bahrain is not slowing down following this success; it remains committed to fully closing gender skills gaps and aims to continue to increase gender parity across its workforce.
Bahrain’s approach to building a future-ready workforce by boosting female participation and reskilling and upskilling local workers could provide a blueprint for other governments, countries and regions.
Lifelong learning opportunities
To create a future-ready economy, countries must work hard to promote greater parity and better access to STEM education for women. These efforts should start at school to ensure a skilled workforce that maximizes all talent by providing equal opportunities for both women and men.
Bahrain is already a global leader in educational outcomes for women: the country ranks among the top five globally for girls outperforming boys in learning outcomes, according to the World Economic Forum and World Bank.
The establishment of the Labour Fund (Tamkeen) in 2006 has been another key driver of Bahrain’s upskilling efforts. This labour fund offers skills training, employment and career development support, entrepreneurship and enterprise focused funding and programmes specifically catering to close gender gaps in the private sector and increase economic participation of Bahraini women.
Closing the gender skills gap
Bahrain’s manufacturing industry – its second-largest non-oil sector – is undergoing substantial transformation. Advances in technology, a growing emphasis on sustainable manufacturing and evolving market demands underscore the need for focused reskilling and upskilling initiatives.
While women currently represent 18.7% of employees in the manufacturing sector, several national initiatives aim to close this gap with specialized training. In other sectors such as finance and telecommunications, female representation is slightly higher at 33%, but gender parity efforts continue in these sectors as well.
Organizations that achieve greater gender parity foster innovation and drive economic growth. Bahrain now has a unique opportunity to capitalize on its world-class female talent, particularly in high-growth industries like technology and advanced manufacturing.
Investing in an inclusive workforce
As Bahrain continues to diversify from an oil to a knowledge economy, its human capital will be one of the major pillars of its economic strength. In addition to increasing gender parity in its workforce, Bahrain wants to increase the participation of local talent in key sectors such as manufacturing, where 75% of the workforce is currently non-Bahraini.
The government wants to make Bahrainis the employees of choice by aligning education with labour market needs and enhancing vocational training. It established an industry-led skills initiative in 2021, Skills Bahrain, which collaborates with employers, education and training providers, and government organizations to bridge skills gaps.
By providing these stakeholders with labour market intelligence, sector-specific data and tools to guide local skills development, Skills Bahrain is also advancing gender-inclusive workforce policies. Since its creation, the initiative has developed a core skills framework and nine sector skills reports that highlight areas for improvement, including gender-based disparities in key industries.
Bahrain’s commitment to skills development has also been recognized by global bank Citi. It chose Bahrain as the location for its Global Technology Hub in 2021, pledging to hire 1,000 Bahraini coders.
Stakeholder collaboration on skills development
Now, Bahrain's Economic Development Board and the World Economic Forum are mobilizing more multi-stakeholder partnerships to drive progress on reskilling and upskilling, with a particular focus on gender parity. The Bahrain Skills and Gender Parity Accelerator will prioritize closing the gender skills gap in high-growth industries, increasing Bahraini male and female participation across the labour market.
The accelerator will be coordinated by Skills Bahrain and led by Tamkeen and the Economic Development Board and leading Bahraini employers. It will use insights from these organizations and from the World Economic Forum's global research efforts such as the Future of Jobs Report to create a cross-sectoral analysis to help to identify current and future gender skills gaps. This will form the foundation for an actionable upskilling and reskilling strategy.
This approach aims to inspire local action, increase gender parity across the workforce and position Bahrain as a global model for inclusive workforce development.
As well as being Minister of Sustainable Development for Bahrain, the author is also Chief Executive of Bahrain Economic Development Board and Member of the Board of The Labour Fund (Tamkeen).
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