The collaboration for the 2020 Digital Talent Scholarship (DTS) Stimulant Program is aimed at honing young talent in the field of data science to support Indonesia’s digital transformation, according to the ministry.
“In accordance with President Joko Widodo’s directives, the Ministry of Communication and Informatics is developing initiatives to meet the needs of 9 million digital talents in the next 15 years," said Minister of Communication and Informatics, Johnny G Plate, in a statement received here on Wednesday.
“This initiative, which has been recognized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), is targeted to accelerate digital transformation and encourage (efforts to reverse the) economic contraction due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” he added.
Minister Plate added that the technological disruption that is currently happening needs to be utilized to make big leaps in the effort to meet the needs of existing digital talent.
Indonesia is expected to add at least 600 thousand talented youth in the digital sector every year to meet the needs of workers with special skills, he explained.
"During this pandemic, the President often told us that COVID-19 should be (seen as) a new stepping point. (It should be seen as a time for) Rebooting, restarting all of our engines," Plate remarked.
“(This includes) The economic engine, digital-related education, the machine for accelerated digital transformation, welcoming Indonesia or pushing Indonesia to become a digital nation, Indonesia Towards Digital Nation," he added.
He further said that the collaboration with world technology companies, including IBM, is part of the government’s commitment to developing talent for emerging skills that relate to, among other things, data science, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity.
As a partner in material provision for DTS 2020, the IBM Skills Academy is providing data science materials to enrich digital capabilities and cultivate the ability to innovate in Indonesia, he added.
"The need for data scientists is recognized in the technology industry as an urgent one. We hope that this step can help increase the number of data science experts in Indonesia," said president director of IBM Indonesia, Tan Wijaya.
"Having more data scientists in the country will help organizations to experiment, develop, and implement AI in the country, as well as accelerate the AI journey and help improve business performance, efficiency, and growth," he added.
The first DTS program was launched by the Ministry of Communication and Informatics in 2018 with one thousand participants. The number of scholarship recipients grew to 25 thousand scholarship in 2019.
This year, the DTS program has drawn 60 thousand participants.
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Translator: Arnidhya Nur Zhafira/Aria Cind
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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