In his second term, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said he aims to provide nationwide vocational training to reduce the country’s unemployment rate, which was 5.28 percent as of August.

The International Labor Organization's director in Indonesia, Michiko Miyamoto, said that technology could help ease access to vocational training as the number of schools and vocational schools are limited in the country.

“There are only about 37,000 villages with secondary education and vocational schools only exist in 10,400 out of 83,000 villages in the country,” she said in a discussion on technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in Jakarta on Dec. 18.

Miyamoto added that the significant increase in internet access has provided a tremendous boost to distance learning, which could overcome geographical limitations.

“Distance learning is important in three aspects, which are in terms of socio-economic development inclusivity, improving outcomes, and conforming to the rapidly changing skill demands,” she said.

Jokowi’s administration has made moves to integrate online platforms in its vocational education programs.

Under the preemployment card program, for example, the government plans to provide online courses for 1.5 million cardholders through cooperation with several tech companies like Gojek and Jobstreet.

Mahatmi Parwitasari Saronto from the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) said that the training is to be focused on producing high-skilled workers to support the government’s prioritized industrial sectors, such as automotives, construction, electronics and chemicals.

She suggested that the program should take different approaches according to the levels of digital literacy of the participants.

“For those who already have sufficient digital literacy, particularly those who live in cities, they could easily be accustomed to the program. Meanwhile, for those in rural areas, we could not just hand them materials, but we also need to develop the infrastructure,” she said.

Mahatmi believes that such a distance learning program could significantly improve the quality of the workforce in rural areas.

“Once they are introduced to advanced technologies, they are going to be excited and they will be eager to learn as they have never seen such things,” she said.

A recent study in Australia, however, suggests that students are more likely to drop out of online courses than classroom courses.

In a study published in October, the Australian National Center for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) found that the withdrawal rates of online courses were about 10 percent higher than conventional classes.

NCVER senior researcher Tabatha Griffin, however, noted that that online course participants have similar outcomes compared to the other graduates.

Universitas Terbuka, an Indonesian open university, faced similar problems. The university’s spokesman Dimas Agung Prasetyo said the university suffered a low retention rate among students who took online courses.

To address these challenges, Mahatmi said the government was collaborating with various institutions and private companies to develop suitable and engaging online courses.

“We have to learn a lot from established institutions such as [online learning platform] Ruangguru. They are experienced in creating programs. We also need to collaborate with ILO and other organizations, so we don’t start from scratch,” the Bappenas official said.

She added that the government must be thorough in determining parts of the module that could be taught online, or those that required face-to-face interaction.

Meanwhile, the Confederation of Indonesian Prosperous Labor Unions deputy head Markus Sidauruk shared his insight on creating practical online courses for laborers. (mpr)

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