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Minister defends 'link and match program' against Sandiaga's debate remark

Industry Minister Airlangga Hartarto has said that the ministry's "link and match" vocational program was running smoothly.

News Desk (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Tue, March 19, 2019

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Minister defends 'link and match program' against Sandiaga's debate remark Industry Minister Airlangga Hartarto (Antara/Wahyu Putro)

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n response to a criticism from vice presidential candidate Sandiaga Uno on vocational schools, the Industry Minister said that the ministry's "link and match" demand-driven vocational program had been running smoothly over the last two years, involving 2,612 vocational schools and 899 companies.

“The government has run the link-and-match program for two years. We hope industry players will supervise and develop vocational schools. Meanwhile, the schools also have to actively participate in the link-and-match program,” Industry Minister Airlangga Hartarto said in Jakarta on Monday, as quoted by kontan.co.id.

He added that the number of participating schools and companies had exceeded the government target of 2,600 schools and 750 companies, and that the ministry had signed 4,997 cooperation agreements in implementing the program.

During the third presidential debate on Sunday, Sandiaga pointed out that a large number of vocational school graduates were unemployed.

According to Statistics Indonesia (BPS), vocational school graduates contributed only 11.24 percent of working-age people who were employed in 2018. The country had an unemployed working-age population of 7 million last year.

Airlangga said that 40,000 vocational school students in Java, Sumatra and Sulawesi had participated in the link-and-match program since it was launched in 2017.

He said, for example, that the ministry had signed 646 cooperation agreements that involved 133 industries and 440 vocational schools in West Java. 

He added that the country had 14,260 vocational schools, of which 10,600 were privately run, and that at least 5,000 schools had not established cooperation with the business sector.

The government was also planning a new regulation to offer a 200 percent "super" tax deduction for companies that contributed to developing vocational schools.

“For example, a company that spends Rp 1 billion to purchase school equipment could receive a Rp 2 billion tax cut,” the minister said, and that a company that assisted vocational schools in producing innovations could receive a super tax deduction of up to 300 percent. (bbn)

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