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Govt to roll out preemployment card in 2020
The government is finalizing details of its preemployment card, a key program proposed by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo during his election campaign to improve the quality of human resources
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span>The government is finalizing details of its preemployment card, a key program proposed by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo during his election campaign to improve the quality of human resources.
Speaking during a limited Cabinet meeting, Jokowi said the program was designed to prepare new members of the workforce with skills that matched with industry demands as well as upgrade the skills of existing workers, so they could be more productive and competitive.
He went on to express his desire to see the program implemented in January next year, adding that people who were eligible would be free to choose from skills training prepared by the government.
“They could choose the training that they are interested in. For example, [to be a] barista, in animation, graphic design, the English language […] programming and coding,” he said at the Presidential Office on Tuesday.
Private companies as well as state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are encouraged to participate in the program by providing the training facilities, he added.
Human resources development is at the core of Jokowi’s second-term administration and its 2020 state budget, as the fast-growing digital economy and risks of automation require upskilling and reskilling for the country’s workforce.
A 2018 study by the McKinsey Global Institute and the World Bank projected that there will be a shortage of 9 million skilled and semiskilled workers for the digital sector in Indonesia between 2015 and 2030.
Automation and the Future of Work in Indonesia, released in September by management consultancy McKinsey & Company, projects that 23 million jobs could be displaced by automation by 2030, but 27 million to 46 million new jobs could be created in the same period.
Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto said the government was preparing a presidential regulation (Perpres) that would be a legal basis for the implementation of the program.
“The program will roll out two to three months after the Perpres is issued,” he said after the limited Cabinet meeting.
The Perpres will detail the requirements for applicants to be eligible to apply for the preemployment card as well as the details of the program’s management.
“At the moment, those who are eligible are people above 18 years of age and are not enrolled in any school,” Airlangga said.
The government has already set aside Rp 10 trillion (US$711.28 million) for the preemployment card program in the 2020 budget, which is targeted to bring skills training to 2 million people throughout next year.
As many as 1.5 million people will be able to apply for the program online so that workers in small cities can have the same opportunities as those in bigger cities, Airlangga said. The remaining 500,000 people, meanwhile, will receive their training either in a government-owned or private-owned skills training center (BLK).
“President Jokowi has tasked the Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister to directly oversee the implementation of the program,” he said.
Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data shows that the country’s open unemployment ratio stood at 5.28 percent of the total workforce in August or equal to 7.05 million people, slightly down from 5.34 percent recorded in the previous year. The figure means that as many as 2.5 million jobs were generated over the period, while 50,000 people lost their jobs.
Experts and business representatives have welcomed the government’s efforts to swiftly implement the prework card program, although they said more work needed to be done to ensure that the implementation could fulfill its intended goal of addressing the skills mismatch between the country’s workers and the labor market.
“The devil is [in the] execution,” said Bob Azam, Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) deputy chairman for labor. “[The participation of] stakeholders are needed to formulate the training to address the skills gap.”
Reforming the Labor Law as well as creating a wage system that is linked to workers’ productivity are also among the key factors of broader reform in the country’s labor system, Bob went on to say.
Gadjah Mada University (UGM) labor expert Tadjudin Nur Effendy said the government needed to also identify skills training programs that were currently being offered by BLKs across the country to ensure that they would be in line with the training offered through the preemployment card program.
It also should ensure that its instructors are qualified, he said.
“If [the instructors are not qualified], then how can we guarantee the quality of the program?” Tadjudin said, calling on the government to thoroughly prepare its trainers, considering that it aimed to cater to 2 million workers in 2020.
