Jakarta, (ANTARA News) - The Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the German Trier Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IHK Trier) on a vocational education partnership program to improve the capacity of human resources as part of an economic equality policy.

"This program aims to train trainers at work. IHK Trier teaches the industry to make better preparation for apprenticeship programs," Deputy for Creative Economy, Entrepreneurship and Competitiveness of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises at the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, Rudy Salahuddin, said here Wednesday.

The MoU on vocational education partnerships was signed by Rudy Salahuddin and the Chief Executive of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Germany, Jan Grockauer.

The partnership program is part of bilateral technical cooperation between the Governments of Indonesia and Germany financed by the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany through sequa gGmbH.

Rudy explained that Central Java and East Java were chosen as places to implement the program given that there are quite a number of medium to high-level industries that could hold apprenticeship.

The first phase of the program was applied from February 1, 2012 to January 31, 2018, then is extended to the second phase from January 31, 2018 to March 31, 2021.

The new bilateral technical cooperation will be continued after the MoU is signed.

The partnership program focuses on three matters, namely the development of vocational education instruments in the industry, the establishment of infrastructure to improve trainers` qualification, and the empowerment of business organizations in Indonesia to establish coordination between schools and industries.

Rudy explained that the development of vocational education by referring to Germany is expected to reduce youth unemployment as well as improve skills competence.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chair of the Labor and Industrial Relations at the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Anton J. Supit, said the signing of the MoU was important to improve the competence of trainers in facing the dynamics of the Industrial Revolution 4.0.

Reporting by Calvin Basuki
Editing by Libertina





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