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As pandemic recedes, preemployement card prioritizes upskilling workers
As the pandemic has receded and economic activity returns to normal, the government’s preemployment card scheme is prioritizing upskilling workers rather than providing cash assistance to pandemic-hit workers.
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Thousands of jobseekers attend a job fair in Jakarta on Sept. 5, 2012. (AFP/Bay Ismoyo)
As the pandemic has receded and economic activity returns to normal, the government’s preemployment card scheme is prioritizing upskilling workers rather than providing cash assistance to pandemic-hit workers.
"During the pandemic, the preemployment card was semi-social assistance. We had to help people who lost their jobs during the pandemic," the program's executive director Denni Purbasari told reporters on Friday in Cirebon, West Java, on the sidelines of an event with former participants of the program.
This year, she added, the scheme offered face-to-face training courses, starting in at least nine provinces, switching from online classes during the pandemic.
About 100 former beneficiaries from Cirebon and neighboring regions gathered at the Friday event and shared their experiences. The government held the event to hear feedback from the alumni.
One of them was Syarif Fauzi from Indramayu, West Java, who lost his job during the pandemic. Syarif said after taking one training course, he could run five angkringan (food carts).
During the event, Syarif suggested that the government should also provide loans for the program's alumni to start their own small businesses.
Between 2020 and 2022, more than 2.5 million people in Indonesia were laid off, largely on account of pandemic pressures, according to one estimate involving collated data from the Indonesian Employers’ Association (Apindo). The figure is based on the number of people in that period who claimed their retirement savings (JHT), which laid-off workers have the right to access.
