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Skill training good both for vocational graduates, companies
The open unemployment rate of SMK graduates reached 8.63 percent this year, 8.92 percent last year and 9.27 percent in 2017.
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Participants in the textile industry scholarship provided by the Industry Ministry take part in yarn spinning training at the Surakarta Textile Academy at the Solo Tekno Park (STP) complex, Solo, Central Java. (ANTARA FOTO/Maulana Surya)
T
he government’s skills-training program not only benefits vocational graduates but also companies that need ready-for-work employees in the country.
For Huda Purnomo, a 23-year-old vocational high school (SMK) graduate, industry training was the bridge to a better future.
"I received many benefits participating in an apprenticeship program because it allowed me to be employed as well as being a student [during mentorship]," said Huda, who had previously participated in a skill training center (BLK) in Bekasi, West Java, and was then hired by Swiss-based escalator and elevator manufacturer PT Berca Schindler Lifts.
Huda said he was hoping for a better future upon being asked the reason why he would join such a company. "More than half of my fellow SMK graduates have yet to be employed," he added.
According to Statistics Indonesia (BPS), SMK graduates had the highest rate of unemployment in the last three years. The open unemployment rate of SMK graduates reached 8.63 percent this year, 8.92 percent last year and 9.27 percent in 2017.
The public-private initiative in vocational studies is part of the government's effort to provide better-qualified workers, whose skills match industry’s needs as President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo centers his programs on human capital development.
On Friday, Berca Schindler agreed to team up with BLK Bekasi and the Manpower Ministry to provide SMK graduates with an apprenticeship program. The program would focus on boosting workers' skills in the installation and maintenance processes of the escalator and elevator industry for a period of two years.
