Etijah: Preparing future workers for the future world

Rising to the occasion

Etijah values youth and education highly. In pursuit of SDG 4 Quality Education, many of the programs are geared towards young adults. “At Etijah, we develop projects that impact our local community, targeting university students and graduates,” Shabib shares. “We believe that the youth are the leaders of this era, therefore we always strive to help them identify and enhance their potential skills by coaching and mentoring them through their very first steps all the way to a successful professional life.”

Etijah is proud to host diverse staff and consultants to ensure that tailored advice and experience is available for anyone’s professional goals. Etijah also incorporates a framework of Corporate Social Responsibility, which enhances their own benefits as well as developing CSR for consulting clients.

Starting off on the right foot

Students are a major focus at Etijah. Shabib shares, “We are currently running a project called Intern Bahrain in collaboration with the US Embassy, which serves the purpose of enhancing the knowledge of 3rd and 4th-year university students and recent graduates so they can have higher chances of employment in the future.” Etijah’s 2020 Virtual Internship program, the precursor to Intern Bahrain, reached 134 students with great success at a time when opportunities were scarce.

On top of strengthening influential younger generations, the program is particularly valuable in the MENA region. “In Bahrain, the youth face an unemployment issue,” Shabib says, “and the biggest reason is that they don’t have experience, which is affecting the economic growth of the country. So, it’s not just placing interns but also focusing on their full-time employment.” Etijah is structured around that value to assist students’ whole transition into the workforce in order to fully support SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth. As a result, projects at Etijah have been inspiringly effective, helping almost 90% of graduate students find well-paying full-time employment within 6 months of completing programs.

Anyone can be a leader

Alongside students, Etijah prioritizes women and SDG 5 Gender Equality. “At Etijah, the whole staff, including the management, are women,” Shabib says. There is also an ongoing project called Ladies Who Lead which offers women the chance to develop the skills they want and the expertise and confidence they need to guide their careers independently. Shabib shares, “The program garnered over 220 applications from women vying for the opportunity to attend workshops and speaker sessions designed to help them better navigate a workplace environment.” In line with Etijah’s values, Ladies Who Lead is aimed towards women who are graduating soon or up to the first few years after. Unsurprisingly, the desire for professional development exceeds Etijah’s current capacity, but in the last decade, they have been able to help over 7000 beneficiaries, making for a fulfilling history and a promising future.

This program’s objective was not only to raise the caliber of the Bahraini career woman, but also to empower to become her best professional self, and to gain the confidence to contribute successfully to the Bahraini workforce.