Printing Furniture Industry HR, Coordinating Minister For Human Development And Culture Appreciates The Polytechnic Of The Ministry Of Industry In Kendal, Central Java

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin) continues to strive to improve the performance of the furniture industry so that it can be more productive and innovative, one of which is through the implementation of vocational education and training at the Polytechnic of the Wood Furniture and Processing Industry (Polifurneka) in Kendal, Central Java.

The existence of the Polifurneka was appreciated by the Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture (Menko PMK) Muhadjir Effendy, who some time ago made a working visit. "This politics is expected to trigger the growth of furniture and human resources industries in the field of wood processing in general. The presence of polytechnics in Kendal must bring benefits, both directly and indirectly to Kendal Regency," said Muhadjir in a written statement, Thursday, March 16. Since the beginning of its implementation in 2018, education in Polifurneka used the concept of multiple system education, namely balanced education both in campus and industry. These educational units involve business actors, industry and associations, ranging from planning study programs, preparing curriculum, teaching activities, industrial work practice activities, to absorption of graduates. Meanwhile, the Head of the Industrial Human Resources Development Agency (BPSDMI) of the Ministry of Industry Arus Gunawan said, currently, the number of Polifurneka students is 437 people and has graduated as many as 262 people to work in furniture industry.

"As a new polytechnic, we always add human resources to lecturers and improve their competence through internship programs for lecturers in industry, as well as adding industrial partners as many as 150 industries in the furniture and wood processing sector," he said.

Polifurneka has three study programs, namely D3 Furniture Production Engineering with graduate output as PPIC/Supervisor Staff, D3 Furniture Design with graduate output as Drafter/Junior Designer, and D3 Furniture Industrial Business Management with graduate output as Assistant Manager/Supervisor.

The education system in Polifurneka combines knowledge, skill and attitude, to produce competent HR output. Learning in Polifurneka uses a dual system, with a proportion of 70 percent practice and 30 percent theory.

The lecture schedule used is semi blocks with a SKKNI-based curriculum.

In its development efforts, Polifurneka was also accompanied by experts from the Skill for Competitiveness (S4C) program in collaboration with the Swiss Government through Swisscontact. Assistance in the form of DACUM (Developing A Curriculum), PSC (Private Sector Cooperation), Strategic Plan Preparation, IT System Development, Silabus Preparation and RPS, Improvement of Lecturer Competency (E-DEDACTIC), Setting Up Machine Workshop.

For your information, the Ministry of Industry noted that the export performance of the furniture industry reached 2.5 billion US dollars throughout 2022, and is targeted to grow to reach 5 billion US dollars by 2024.

The furniture industry is one of the labor-intensive sectors with a total employment of 143,000 people from 1,114 thousand companies. Based on data, until December 2022, the utilization of the furniture industry was at 74.16 percent.