Indonesia's Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Science, and Technology, Stella Christie, has emphasized the need for higher education to help transform informal skills into formal qualifications in order to produce a more competitive and resilient workforce.
“What higher education must do is actually somewhat paradoxical but crucial. It must turn informal skills into formal ones. Currently, around 60 percent of Indonesia’s economy operates in the informal sector,” she said on Wednesday.
She explained that a workforce dominated by informal labor is not sustainable, as such workers typically live hand-to-mouth and are unable to save or invest in the future.
“They survive from one income to the next. We need to change this to escape the middle-income trap and become an advanced economy,” Christie noted.
She stressed that upgrading informal skills through formal education is essential to strengthening the national economy.
“Skills must be formalized. If we don’t do this, if the higher education system fails to formalize them, the informal sector will remain stagnant, and that poses a risk to our national economic future,” she added.
As a solution, Christie proposed adopting micro-credentials—short, targeted qualifications designed to develop specific, in-demand skills in the workforce.
“Micro-credentials have already been adopted in many countries, including across Europe and in member states of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD),” she said, adding that they have been proven to increase both income and labor absorption.
She also highlighted that micro-credentials can offer economic opportunities to disadvantaged communities.
“Micro-credentials can help convert informal work into formal employment, and the social inclusivity benefits are also well documented,” she said.
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Translator: Lintang, Kenzu
Editor: Anton Santoso
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