"The paradigm and curriculum of the higher learning institutes must be totally reviewed."Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesian Manpower Minister Muhaimin Iskandar has expressed concern due to the increasing number of unemployed university graduates in the country.
While speaking at a graduation ceremony at the InterStudi Communications High Learning Institute (STIKOM) here Saturday, Minister Iskandar said the number of unemployed graduates has been on the rise each year, with available jobs not being filled by university graduates.
"The paradigm and curriculum of the higher learning institutes must be totally reviewed," he urged.
He further said institutes need to have plans to make their graduates ready to work and become reliable workers.
According to data released by the National Statistics Agency in August 2012, 110.8 million people in Indonesia were employed, but most, or 53.88 million (48.63 percent), had only elementary school educations, while 20.22 million others (18.25 percent) were junior high school graduates.
Employed university graduates total only 6.98 million, or 6.30 percent, with those who left diploma programs at 2.97 million, or 2.68 percent.
Muhaimin said the curriculum has been aimed at producing as many graduates as possible, while ignoring the quality of the graduates, causing them to be unprepared to compete in obtaining employment.
"The link and match between universities and the employment market has not worked optimally. Educational institutes seem to target producing as many as they can graduate, without providing their alumni with working skills," he said.
He added that if the phenomena continued, Indonesia would be filled with unemployed intellectuals.
"In the future, the institutes of high learning must be able to design professions for their alumni. From the first semester, students must be able to measure their professional capacity so they will be ready to work right after graduation," he said.
The minister added that although manpower conditions are improving from year to year, he said efforts would continue to open new jobs and reduce unemployment.
He noted that the government has prepared four ways to overcome unemployment among university graduates, including setting up vocational training centers to improve the quality of human resources, developing the educational system, facilitating the growth of job fairs and creating entrepreneurship development programs.
"Every year, the government plans strategies to create jobs, both formal and informal, with the hope they could reduce unemployment," he said.
(T.A043/H-YH/INE/KR-BSR)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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