His Excellency Dr. Raed Mohammed Bin Shams, the Director-General of the Bahrain Institute of Public Administration (BIPA), has stated that the assessment and counseling services provided by BIPA as part of its 2016-2018 strategies, aim at enabling government leaders, individuals and organizations to utilize their capabilities and energies for improving productivity and institutional development to effectively participate in the sustainable development processes of the Kingdom of Bahrain.
“The assessment and counseling services stem from the importance of creating integration in the government performance development process through the development of government leaders and individuals”, Dr. Bin Shams said. “The assessment services provided by BIPA are founded on innovative methods within international scientific methodologies based on measuring personal skills and identification of points of strength and areas of improvement with reputable firms having proven experience in this accurate specialization”, he added. This is to take advantage of such experiences to improve management and leadership skills.
Dr. Bin Shams pointed out that assessment and counseling services are not limited to development of leaders and individuals, but they extend also to developing business in organizations through the support of nomination and recruitment decisions for higher leading positions in the civil service, apart from providing services for identifying training needs and for measuring the effect and return of government schemes in general and of training in particular. This is to develop training services and projects provided for the public sector.
Ghada Shana’ah, Acting Executive Director of Assessment Department, adds that such services are divided into four main services, namely, the psychometric assessment, which is measurement of behavioral skills and job preferences of incumbents of higher positions and various categories of the civil service. The capability assessment service is an assessment of digital, verbal and logical capabilities by applying proven scientific and internationally recognized tests. A counseling service is a mutual dialogue between a counselor and a recipient the purpose of which is to improve individual and institutional performance and to create a positive work environment. Finally, the career aptitude: it is a process for measuring the suitability of a particular person to take up a specified position.
BIPA has recently agreed with the Supreme Council for Women, the Ministry of Labour & Social Development and TAMKEEN to offer the IRSHAD Program for development of occupational counseling services. It aims at developing capabilities of people exercising occupational counseling at the Ministry of Labour & Social Development to enhance opportunities for placing jobseekers in corresponding positions.