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RI pushes to tackle digital skill gap

Indonesians will have the opportunity to wrap their heads around cloud technology and jump on the cloud computing bandwagon as tech giants and ministries recently rolled out digital-savvy initiatives on cloud proficiency

Made Anthony Iswara (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Wed, July 17, 2019

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RI pushes to tackle digital skill gap

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span>Indonesians will have the opportunity to wrap their heads around cloud technology and jump on the cloud computing bandwagon as tech giants and ministries recently rolled out digital-savvy initiatives on cloud proficiency.

On Tuesday, Amazon senior vice president of global corporate affairs Jay Carney said its cloud computing arm Amazon Web Services (AWS) would roll out a cloud skills enhancement plan to train hundreds of thousands of Indonesians on cloud services proficiency by 2025.

The former White House spokesman said the urgent need for upskilling amid the deficit in digital talent had fueled the program’s debut.

He quoted a 2018 study by the McKinsey Global Institute and World Bank that projected a shortage of 9 million skilled and semiskilled workers for the digital sector in Indonesia between 2015 and 2030.

The increasing demand for cloud technology for burgeoning start-ups and entrepreneurs, he claimed, had also driven the company to roll out the program.

Considering its compound annual growth rate of 38.23 percent, Indonesia’s cloud market would be worth US$454.3 million this year, according to market research firm Frost & Sullivan.

“Everything you see now in technology is very exciting and it is all driven by cloud [technology],” Carney told The Jakarta Post in an exclusive interview.

“The future is bright here [in Indonesia],” he said during the public exhibition. 

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has pushed to improve human capital programs centering on digital talent, especially in vocational schools. His appeal followed 2018 Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data published in February that revealed graduates of vocational high schools comprised the largest share of the unemployed at 8.63 percent. 

Manpower Minister Hanif Dhakiri, who is involved in the program, said the ministry would work with AWS to educate 100 tutors on cloud computing this year and expects to have 400 tutors by 2020.

He also expected to have at least 100,000 students enrolled in the cloud computing class, among other digital-related modules, at AWS skill training centers by 2025.

At the end of the two-month courses, participants will receive a certificate that follows AWS’ standards, he explained, which could be used for job-searching purposes. The ministry will kick off the classes in September as the first batch of tutors will be ready by August.

In May, the Communications and Information Ministry also partnered with tech giants including AWS to provide a digital talent scholarship program for 25,000 people, which includes courses on cloud computing. Minister Rudiantara said the scheme aimed to fulfill the need of 600,000 skilled workers in the digital sector every year.

Both the Research, Technology and Higher Education Ministry and the Creative Economy Agency (Bekraf) have also pushed their own version of cloud computing training since 2018 through the ministry’s “Cloud Computing Bootcamp” and the agency’s “Bekraf Developer Day”. 

The AWS also claimed that the Education and Culture Ministry had adopted resources from the company’s cloud computing program in its revised curriculum for vocational schools. Since May, the ministry has piloted the new materials in East Java as it expects to implement the change nationwide this year.

With plans to open its second data center in Indonesia, China-based cloud computing rival Alibaba also stepped up its cloud upskilling game earlier this year by training and certifying 250 of a promised 300 local cloud computing professionals by year-end.

Since 2018, the tech giant has also worked with the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce to provide an eight-day training program in China to equip Indonesian entrepreneurs with the necessary digital skills for their ventures.

“The transformational journey the traditional industries in China have gone through over the past few years will also provide valuable lessons to Indonesian entrepreneurs and business leaders and enable them to become more innovative and adaptive in the digital era,” said Alibaba group vice president Brian A. Wong as quoted in a recent press release.

Institute for Development of Economics and Finance digital economy expert Nailul Huda praised the workforce framework set by the ministries and cloud computing companies.

He said similar digital schemes could help suppress the high turnover in sectors like financial technology because of underskilled workers.

“We also hope that those who complete the program can train others and have a multiplier effect so that the skilled worker shortage can be resolved,” Huda said.

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