Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian government will allocate Rp1 trillion in funds to build technical and vocational education and training centers (BLKs) at 1,000 Islamic boarding schools (Pesantren) across the country next year, a minister said.

"Mr. President Joko Widodo has agreed to build BLKs at 1,000 Pesantren as part of the program to develop human resources in 2019," Manpower Minister Hanif Dhakiri said in a press statement released on Saturday.

The minister said he will ensure that each Pesantren will receive Rp1 billion to build and develop BLK in a bid to improve the competency of Indonesian human resources.

Each Pesantren can apply for the fund to build BLK by providing a large area of idle land for its location, he said.

"Since BLK needs a large area of land, we need to survey its location first," he said.

He expressed the hope that the construction of BLKs will help the government improve the competence of labor force en masse.

"We want the presence of BLKs at Pesantren to deal with the gap between the demand in the job market and the competency of Pesantren graduates so they will become stronger (to earn money) and play a role in eradicating poverty in the future," he said.

Reporting by Aubrey Kandelila Fanani
Editing by Suharto, Andi Abdussalam

Reporter: Antara
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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