A CAMPAIGN is underway to encourage students to reconnect with their roots and build a better Bahrain.

Bahrain Polytechnic’s Our Kingdom Our Future drive involves a series of newspaper and radio adverts that seek to inspire national pride.

“It basically sends the message of where we are heading as a university and how our students can serve Bahrain,” said Bahrain Polytechnic acting director of marketing and communications Sana Al Jamea.

“It comes in line with Bahrain Polytechnic’s aim to give tools to Bahrainis for using their roots and carry on building their country.”

The newspaper adverts feature a map of Bahrain filled with icons that represent the various academic programmes offered by the polytechnic.

“Each icon represents a student and how they can build our country and make it move forward,” said Ms Al Jamea.

“We used icons as people can relate and understand what they mean and how the ones in line with a specific programme are lit up in red with its designated tagline.

“The campaign is an extension of the brand, which was created to encourage youth to be proud of their roots and re-establish them and move
forward to build their country through education.

“It follows research and focus groups, which revealed some young Bahrainis are proud of their roots but lost their way in keeping that identity.”

The Polytechnic’s logo also seeks to symbolise thought and knowledge.

“The logo if seen closely has a very unique pattern that at first sight you can not identify its origin,” said Ms Al Jamea.

“The pattern was created by us, it’s an overlay of three patterns that represent three eras of Bahrain: the Dilmun, Medieval and Islamic.

“We then zoomed in and applied the result as a unique pattern exclusive to Bahrain Polytechnic, carrying the message that youth are the combination of Bahrain’s roots and are armed with knowledge to build the future.”

The Polytechnic plans to hold an open day at its Isa Town campus on March 23, from 10am to 4pm, where people can speak to students and staff about its programmes.

“We want to re-educate the public on the image of technical education,” said its deputy chief executive for academic affairs Dr Hassan Al Mulla.

“The image needs to change as the economy is based on more hands on people and not only thinkers.”