Alosra Supermarket hosted a Fun Day at Adhari Park for 100 Bahraini trainees the retail chain has identified as potential recruits from the Tamkeen International Apprenticeship Programme.

These students have been attending classes at the Bahrain International Retail Development Centre (BIRD) since April this year. There, they are being groomed in all aspects of the modern retail environment to enable them to eventually take up shop floor or supervisory positions at the new 1500-square metre Alosra Supermarket on Amwaj Islands, set to open by September this year.

The course, which comprises six weeks of classroom learning followed by six weeks of on-the-job training at various Alosra outlets, will be completed by mid July. On completion of the course, students will receive a Diploma in Retail from City and Guilds, the biggest name in UK vocational education.

The event at Adhari Park was a chance for team building among the trainees as well as to introduce them to the BMMI Group, the parent company of the Alosra chain of Supermarkets. The event featured several speakers including BMMI CE Gordon Boyle and Dr. Abdulla Ahmed Abdulla from the Ministry of Commerce/Consumer Protection who spoke about Food Safety.

“Watching the students outside the classroom allowed us to assess their personalities and how they would best fit into the business,” said Chetna Chaturvedi, Training and Development Specialist at BMMI. “It was also an opportunity to drive home the fact that while there is a lot of scope for them to develop their career within the Group, there are certain expectations that we have from them in return as employees of BMMI.”

Next week the students will put their theoretical training to work as they start their on-the-job training. Over the coming six weeks they will be further assessed to determine the area of retail operations where their strengths can be better utilised. Once this is done, some of them will receive further technical training from BDO Jawad Habib Consulting to equip them to become professional butchers, bakers and confectioners.

Commenting on the training, Warren Grove, General Manager of Alosra said, “At present, Alosra has a healthy percentage of Bahraini versus expatriate staff and our partnership with Tamkeen is a very good example of a campaign towards progress that will bear fruit in the years to come.

Alosra is now in a position to go out into the market and offer Bahrainis not just a short-term job but an actual career in retail. I have every confidence that this group of talented individuals will prove that investing in people will bring the reward of developing within the business and becoming an important asset in its future. Not only are we investing in the future of Bahrain, but also in the future of Alosra and that of the local youth; this will definitely become part of our modus operandi for opening any other Alosra store in the years to come.”