4 March 2010

• Shaikha Marwa bint Rashid Al Khalifa from Crown Prince Scholarship Programme, praised Alba for its on-going support and partnership to the programme, and contribution towards community development.
• Alba sponsored a five-day workshop on debating skills for the Crown Prince Scholarship Programme, and was attended by 16 students from various government schools in Bahrain.
• The workshop was organised by the Alba Toastmasters from February xx to xx, 2010.

Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) was praised for its on-going support and partnership in the Crown Prince Scholarship Programme as well as for contributing towards community development and in meeting the aspirations of the political leadership in realising Bahrain's Economic Vision 2030.

This statement was made from the Crown Prince Scholarship Programme, Shaikha Marwa bint Rashid Al Khalifa who thanked Alba for organising a five-day debating skills workshop last week at the Alba Club.

16 students from various government schools in Bahrain participated in the workshop, which was organised by the Alba Toastmasters under programme guidelines approved by Toastmasters International.

The students were introduced to the basics of conducting and managing debates, presenting different opinions in a convincing manner, and responding in a positive manner to the ideas presented by the competing team.

At the event, Alba's Chief Operation Officer, Mohammed Mahmood, Chief Financial Officer, Tim Murray, Human Resources & Training Manager and Acting PR Manager, Abdul Rahman Janahi gave a brief account of their experience in public speaking and highlighted the benefits of applying the skills learnt at the workshop in real life situations.

The workshop material was presented and supervised by the founding member of Alba Toastmasters and evaluator of leadership programmes for the Crown Prince Scholarship Programme, Ahmed Shukri. He was assisted by Toastmaster member and head of Organisational Development in Alba's Human Resources & Training Department, Prachur Shukla.

The content for the workshop included a number of simple models on how to manage a direct debate without having to waste time and effort in influencing other parties. The students were later able to put their theory into practise when they were asked to split into two teams and engage in an actual debate: one team representing a company facing an environmental problem while the other team representing the labour union of the same company. The competition was fierce on the final day of the workshop, and both teams displayed great skills during their debate.

The Toastmasters Club expressed their pleasure in participating in this workshop, and the President of the Alba Toastmasters, Sayed Abbas Al Alawi praised the students for their skills and talents during the five-day workshop.