Bahrain: English skills 'is vital for success'

[Harold Schiffman]

 ------------------------------
 *English skills 'is vital for success'*  By RASHA AL QAHTANI
Published: 13th December 2007

EFFORTS to upgrade Bahrain's education sector must focus on the English
language, which is among he basic skills employees need for the workplace, a
regional symposium heard yesterday. English is the global language for
communication and it is essential that countries in the region educate its
people to cope with the global market, said Education Ministry
Under-Secretary Shaikh Hisham bin Abdulaziz Al Khalifa. He said Bahrain's
national education reform plan will makes sure to meet these demands.

"We have to tackle the urgent need to improve employment prospects through
the effective use of English in the workplace," said Shaikh Hisham. He was
speaking at the opening ceremony of the English Symposium organised by the
British Council at the Gulf Hotel. More than 100 representatives from
governments and industries across the Middle East took part. The two-day
symposium was held under the theme English for the Workplace: Policy and
Practice for the Middle East.

It aims to bridge the current gap between education and employment by
kick-starting action for a more co-ordinated and robust approach to the
learning and application of appropriate English language skills in the
workplace. English Company managing director and symposium key speaker David
Graddol said English is now considered to be among the basic skills set that
employees need for the international workplace.

"Making sure young people across the Middle East have these employable
skills is particularly important in a region where one third of the
population is under the age of 25 years and has an high unemployment rate
among its youth," he said.

"The first years of the 21st century have witnessed a dramatic shift in the
place of English in both the educational world and the global economy."

Mr Graddol said in the education systems of many countries, English was
treated as a basic skill rather than a foreign language.

British Council regional English manager said the importance of the language
as a basic skill for the international workplace cannot be underestimated.

"It drives economic development in today's global business community but is
sadly often a much neglected area," she said.

"The symposium aims to identify areas of common concern and work out
collective solutions.

"By bringing together these influential individuals from education and
industry, we have taken the first step in a journey to create a new network
of key people in the Middle East who can work together to address the
English language needs for the workplace in the future."

Proceedings from the symposium will be published after the event so that a
wider audience can benefit from its discussions and recommendations.
rasha at gdn.com.bh
 ------------------------------

(c) Gulf Daily News  http://mail.google.com/mail/?source=navclient#compose




-- 
**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its
members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or
sponsor of
the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree
with a
message are encouraged to post a rebuttal. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)
*******************************************
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lgpolicy-list/attachments/20071214/40dd0236/attachment.htm>