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Govt searches for ways to bridge yawning skills gap
Source: Statistics Indonesia (BPS)Born in North Kalimantan’s Tanjung Selor, architecture student Diandra Faradina, 23, has come to realize that she has learned more usable skills from her three freelance jobs — none of which had relevance to her major — than from her formal education
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Source: Statistics Indonesia (BPS)
Born in North Kalimantan’s Tanjung Selor, architecture student Diandra Faradina, 23, has come to realize that she has learned more usable skills from her three freelance jobs — none of which had relevance to her major — than from her formal education.
With only a year left before graduation, she has little hope she can find a decent job from her degree, considering that many of her friends have either taken jobs totally unrelated to their majors or have opted to become civil servants out of desperation to earn a living.
At worst, other graduates remain jobless several months after graduating, she said, forcing them to move out of town to seek employment.
“Meanwhile, schools are expensive and a lot of us have to take up side jobs to pay the expenses. But well-paid architectural jobs are so hard to apply for, especially in a small town like mine,” said Diandra, who has studied in Malang, East Java, since 2014.
Diandra’s qualms are shared by thousands of other recent university graduates in Indonesia, with a Statistics Indonesia (BPS) report showing that 6.24 percent of the country’s 6.82 million unemployed individuals are university graduates.
The unemployment rate for graduates of vocational high schools, which are meant to train students for specific jobs, is most alarming at 8.63 percent of the workforce in February 2019.
Against this backdrop, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is pursuing a grand vision to develop Indonesia’s human capital, with the government stepping up efforts to bridge the skills gap and bring more unemployed people into the workforce by improving vocational schools and training.
As part of his campaign, the President will disburse Rp 10.3 trillion (US$725,217) for preemployment training to equip jobseekers with skills necessary for work.
The funds are expected to be disbursed through cards for 1 million jobseekers, with 1 million more to be allocated for those looking for work in the digital sector.
On top of these efforts, Manpower Minister Hanif Dhakiri announced in April that he would increase the vocational education budget next year, but had yet to disclose an exact number. The current budget totals Rp 16.8 trillion.
The government previously also signaled it would trim some Rp 1 trillion from the Education and Culture Ministry’s budget to balance the increased budget for the Manpower Ministry and Public Works and Housing Ministry in 2020.
A study published in July by Alpha Beta and the Australia-Indonesia economic development partnership Prospera highlighted that the problem was more deep-rooted. The study argued that Indonesia’s relatively low per capita spending on education compared to neighboring countries had hampered development.
“Industry stakeholders continue to report mismatches between the breadth and quality of skills they need and the skills taught in vocational and other educational institutions,” a section of the study states.
Even though the country devotes a similar portion of the budget to education as Vietnam and Malaysia, the country has fared worse in its educational outcomes in core subjects like math, a collaborative study with the World Bank and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) found in 2015.
“There is a sense among stakeholders that the government has focused on controlling the skills supply rather than preparing a skills system that can respond quickly to demand,” Alpha Beta researchers wrote in the report. “This creates structural inflexibility, which generates graduates who are not suited for the positions available.”
The Indonesian Employers Association’s (Apindo) employment training and human capital development committee member Miftahudin concurred with these findings, adding that many employers were reluctant to hire applicants due to their lack of soft skills.
Emi La Palau, a 22-year-old recent graduate from a university in Bandung, West Java, felt the pain. She had to spare Rp 3 million for a three-month broadcast training course as she aspires to work in radio or television, even though she had majored in communications.
“The university only teaches the theory. There needs to be an initiative to sharpen soft skills,” said Emi. Unemployment in West Java is the highest of all provinces in the archipelago at a rate of 7.7 percent, which compares to the national rate of 5.01 percent, BPS data show.
Even as government-funded vocational training programs are expanded, many people do not benefit. Worse, an Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) report found that 1.18 million people trained at skill training centers were jobless in February last year.
This is despite the fact that, according to the Research, Technology and Higher Education Ministry’s calculation, Indonesia needs at least 113 million skilled workers by 2030 to achieve economic growth in priority sectors — almost double the current number of skilled workers.
There are currently 55 million skilled workers in Indonesia, accounting for less than half of the country’s 128 million-strong workforce, the ministry reported.
The inadequacies of the country’s training and education system should compel the government to increase the allocation for vocational training in the 2020 state budget, Indonesian Workers Organization (OPSI) secretary-general Timboel Siregar said. The funds should be used to improve the quality of the Manpower Ministry’s skills training centers and their supporting materials.
