"The Industry Ministry is aware that the provision of competent human resources is part of investment in industrial development. Efforts to improve vocational education and training are important to (fulfill) this need," head of the Industrial Human Resources Development Agency (BPSDMI), Arus Gunawan, said, reading the remarks of the Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita here on Friday.
The ministry is committed to boosting national economic growth by strengthening the industrial sector in Indonesia and providing an industrial workforce that is adaptive to developments in industrial technology, he added.
Through the agency, the ministry is organizing technology-based vocational education and training programs as one of the strategies to meet the demand for industrial workers in the era of Industry 4.0 and digitalization.
The IVY 2022 event involved 144 industrial companies, 127 participants from central and regional chamber of commerce and industry, and partners, as well as 947 participants from vocational schools and polytechnics. In total, the number of participants taking part in person, virtually, and via hybrid mode was 1,730.
The four-day event was followed by the launch of IVY 2023 in Mega Kuningan, Jakarta, by Gunawan.
He said that the success of the vocational education and training program was owing to the establishment of partnerships between education and training institutions and industry, which reduced the problem of supply and demand mismatch in terms of industrial human resources.
"The BPSDMI at the Industry Ministry has organized programs that have link and match best practice partnerships between the education sector and the industry sector so that a supply and demand mismatch in industrial education and training units does not happen," he explained.
Based on data projections from the Industry Ministry, the annual need for industrial human resources has now reached 682 thousand, while the pool of available workers is still very small.
This has prompted the ministry to collaborate with stakeholders through vocational education involving vocational schools, polytechnics, community academies, 3-in-1 training, diploma-one equivalent programs, and improvement of link and match revitalization of vocational schools and industry to meet market demand.
"We also don't hesitate to learn from friendly countries that have succeeded in managing good and well-established education so that we also get the best practices," he remarked.
The IVY event was the result of a collaboration between the agency and the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, Chamber of Industry, TVET System Reform (TSR) GIZ, S4C Swisscontact, Prospera, and Axioo.
Swiss Secretary of State and Director of Employment, Boris Zürcher, said Switzerland has been collaborating with Indonesia in skills development, which has been a top priority of Swiss cooperation programs for 50 years.
"We are very proud to continue this collaboration through the Swiss Economic Cooperation and Development Program with Indonesia. We look forward to continuing this successful partnership with Indonesia, especially the Industry Ministry," Zürcher added.
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Translator: Sella Panduarsa G, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Sri Haryati
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