Mentoring is a widely known and acceptable act for talent development and skill building and transfer. Sharing knowledge and experience is one of the best forms of growth, both personally and business wise. Thus, in line with its strategic objective for human development of the Bahraini community, Tamkeen has launched its comprehensive Business Mentorship Program.
The Business Mentorship Program falls under Tamkeen’s advisory services platform, which aims to enrich young Bahraini entrepreneurs with professional experience. To gain more insight on mentoring in general, Startup MGZN consulted with two of the programs current mentors Omar Al Khan and Jalila Aarab on their take of mentorship and their experience with it thus far. Without further ado, here are some of the benefits of the mentorship program:
- Relevance in the market. Mentors know all the ins and outs on how to adapt to the ever-changing job market. By learning all of these new skills and tricks while making the right decisions, you can be seen as an asset or even an advocate to your employer.
- Personal development. Mentors can help people understand where they are, and what they need to achieve to reach their full potential. “I want to show the younger generation that there is a possibility of being an entrepreneur, and help them emotionally before technically. The biggest challenge of running a business is the emotional part, not the technical part. Once you have that down, everything else will fall into place,” said Omar.
- Knowledge building. The learning never ends, and mentors often make people realize that there is so much more to learn. Even people who hold senior positions still have mentors they confide in. Omar says “applicants of the program will learn and gain experience from our consultancy to better their entrepreneurial skills, we don’t just tackle one area of the business, rather everything – it’s the full package.”
- Gain a friend. A mentor is someone you will frequently see as well as someone you can voice your concerns to – make sure that before you do get a mentor, that they are someone that shares your thoughts and someone you can get along with well. Research done by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee suggests that a mentor and mentee relation without rapport is like having no mentor at all.
- End up a mentor. It feels incredible to nurture young talent – a mentee with a problem, may help you see different perspectives on an issue you never saw before. “I joined to be a mentor of this program to see and meet fresh blood and get ideas; their fresh ideas keep me going and inspired” Omar states. “Being a mentor is my way of giving back to the community, it’s also a great opportunity for me to learn and be inspired by young Bahraini entrepreneurs,” Jalila says.
Tamkeen currently has three mentors listed for their program, and they are:
- Moyez Kassam. An accomplished management executive, entrepreneur, and consultant with diverse experience in creating, developing and enabling strategies that, leverage intellectual capital.
- Jalila Aarab. An executive director of Bahrain Fashion Incubator (BFI), and with 25+ years of experience in the fashion industry, Jalila is determined to mentor designers with the development of their fashion businesses.
- Omar Al Khan. Managing Partner and founder of ParkPoint Parking Solutions, Omar believes that great economies thrive on innovation, and aspires to see Bahrain with a great entrepreneurial culture.
Tamkeen is also currently accepting and looking for more mentors to add to their program. If you are interested, all you have to do is register here.
The Business Mentorship Program, on the other hand, is open to Bahraini entrepreneurs with a functioning business of at least two years. If you think you fit the profile and want to join the mentorship program, all you have to do is register here.
If you’re interested in applying, you can contact Tamkeen through 17383333 or via email through support@tamkeen.bh.Make sure you follow Tamkeen on their Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn to stay up to date with their programs and upcoming events.
