Sumarna Abdurahman, the chairman of the Indonesia Professional Certification Authority, told a discussion meeting in Jakarta on Monday that there was still a gap between the competence of vocational school graduates and the level of skills demanded by industries, especially those in five priority sectors — tourism, infrastructure, manufacture, agriculture and mining.

The one-day meeting, attended by Sutarum Wiryono, the senior project officer of education at the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and Paristiyanti Nurwardani, the director of learning at the Research, Technology and Higher Education Ministry, discussed the importance of an appropriate competence standardization for international competitiveness.

Sumarna said the key to the narrowing of the demand-supply gap was to improve competence standardization through the National Working Competency Standards and the National Qualification Framework.

To help vocational schools improve their education to meet the demanded industrial standards, industrial companies should relay their demands to the schools, and the government should provide incentives and assist industrial associations in drafting competence standardizations.

Sumarna acknowledged that Indonesian industries were comparatively weaker than those in developed countries, and they therefore needed government support in the form of financial aid or tax incentives in drafting the standardizations.

“Drafting standards is not easy because it should follow the stringent guidelines of the International Labour Organization.”

Sutarum of the ADB concurred, saying that he frequently saw industrial companies fail to communicate their skill requirements with vocational schools.

He added that the ADB had funneled US$75 million to assist 34 vocational schools nationwide.

The fund was used to finance partnerships, internships and workshops, so that local companies and vocational schools could set up local level competency standardization.

“But, of course, the needs of companies in one region are not similar to those in other regions, so the government should mobilize companies nationwide and create national standards,” Sutarum said.

The government, aware of the skills gap, announced plans to increase the vocational education budget to Rp 17.2 trillion.

The ministry’s Paristiyanti said the increase would help it roll out its Prior Learning Recognition (PLR) system nationwide, adding that it would accelerate the annual increase of vocational school graduates and thereby meet Jokowi’s pledge to have 2 million skilled graduates each year until 2030.

She explained how, under the PLR system, any non-academic skill certification possessed by an individual would be recognized as academic credits that would allow the individual not only to apply for a vocational school, but also shorten his education period by a year.

“We acknowledge that few Indonesians have the time and money to pursue higher education, so this would make it more affordable for them.”

Paristiyanti said the PLR system would target the 62 million Indonesians who have little or no education, many of whom were semi-skilled workers who would abandon pursuing further training to work full time.
However, she concurred with Sumarna that the ministry lacked funds to fully roll out the PLR system even though it was launched last year.

“It’s as though the plane [the PRL system] was there, the pilots [the students and officials] were there but there was no fuel [funding],” she said. (nor)

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