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Madiun university offers railway engineering program
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Jakarta MRT's Lebak Bulus depo. Madiun State Polytechnic (PNM) in Madiun, East Java, has recently opened a railway engineering program with a bachelor of applied science degree. (Antara/Akbar Nugroho Gumay)
M
adiun State Polytechnic (PNM) in Madiun, East Java, has recently opened a railway engineering program with a bachelor of applied science degree.
Research, Technology and Higher Education Minister Mohamad Nasir officiated the program on Friday, while new student enrollment is expected to begin this year.
The minister had urged PNM to launch the program, pointing to the progress of rail transport in Indonesia. Some of the government’s recent efforts include the Jakarta-Bandung high speed train, Jakarta’s MRT and Palembang’s light rapid transit (LRT) in South Sumatra.
“Our railway [industry] still lacks qualified human resources, whether [the companies] are run by the Indonesian Railways Academy [API] or PT Industry Kereta Api [PT INKA], while the demand is incredibly high,” Nasir told kompas.com.
Read also: ITB to offer master degree program on railway engineering
“The workers we have now also need improvement. We plan to send 15 INKA engineers to China to study high-speed trains, while 142 railway experts from the company will be involved in the program,” he added.
PNM director M. Fajar Subkhan said that demand for skilled workers in the railway industry was increasing.
“We need around 30,000 people. It’s a big number and we need to meet that demand if we want to provide qualified [human] resources,” he said.
Fajar said the school has prepared a number of activities with related agencies to strengthen collaborations between the field of education and the transportation industry. (wng)
