Pre-Employment Is Considered A Form Of Social Justice For All Indonesian People

Pre-Employment Executive Director, Denni Purbasari. (Photo: Doc. Pre-Employment)

JAKARTA - The Pre-Employment Card Program initiated by President Joko Widodo has proven to have a significant impact on its alumni. This success is recognized at the international level so that many friendly countries study at the Pre-Employment. The figure behind the performance is Denni Puspa Purbasari, Executive Director of Pre-Employment.

Denni shared her experience for about four years behind the Pre-Employment. Around almost all parts of Indonesia, the former Deputy III of the Presidential Staff Office (KSP) was always impressed when he heard stories from pre-employment graduates whose lives are now getting better.

This is in line with the vision of Indonesia Gold which aims to make Indonesia a developed country by 2045. All the carrying capacity that the nation has is also deployed in order to encourage the achievement of these ideals, one of which is by improving the quality of human resources. Especially with the demographic bonus, development will move faster.

Denni Puspa Purbasari while talking to Antara at his office in Central Jakarta, quoted on Sunday, December 17, said that when the Pre-Employment was initiated, the COVID-19 pandemic had not yet occurred. This program was formed because we realized that the need for upskilling and reskilling was enormous, especially because of digital disruption.

Our workforce amounts to about 50 million people from Sabang to Merauke, not only Java. We are thinking about how people have the opportunity to take practical training that makes them relevant, defensive, and competitive, either moving jobs or even moving up. class, "he explained.

Moreover, said Denni, Pre-Employment is not only for unemployed but also for those who are already working but want to advance to a better class or change of work. Unemployment in Indonesia, he said, is only 5 percent of the workforce, while the remaining 95 percent are already working.

The problem is that the workers only have an average income of IDR 3.19 million per month. It's still quite low, we have to keep the gas going. We are trying to increase that through increased skills and productivity," he said.

Denni further said that his party is trying to mass-upkill on a large scale and diversion in Indonesia. Therefore Presidential Regulation (Perpres) Number 36 of 2020 concerning Work Competency Development through the Pre-Employment Card Program is designed.

Dalam regulasi tersebut sudah forward looking; menyadari Indonesia kita yang luas dan ribuan pulau. Terkenalkan juga bahwa pelatihan tidak hanya akan secara offline tetapi juga online. Kalau kita hanya bergantung pada pelatihan offline maka orang-orang pulau tersebut harus go ke kota-kota provinsi mendapat lembaga courseu yang bagus, jelas dia.

What about our brothers and sisters in West Seram Regency having to go to Ambon leaving their families, livestock, their jobs, paying for transportation and living costs a week to two weeks to take offline training. It's very expensive, state money is certainly not strong," he added.

Not to mention the problems related to the quality of instructors and coaching institutions in Ambon, how good it is, what kind of sequence. In fact, Denni continued, his party wanted them to be able to jump far away, Seram's Western children immediately received instructors from Jakarta.

Even when I visited Biak Regency, there was a child who admitted that they were proud of Prakerja because he could study with Javanese children with the same instructor. Often they feel they are given the most opportunities," he said.

"This shows that social justice for all Indonesian people really exists in Pre-Employment," added Denni.

Denni explained that Presidential Decree No. 36 of 2020 concerning Pre-Employment has been designed since November 2019. This legal umbrella has also mentioned the implementation of online and offline training.

"However, our Presidential Decree was released in February 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic attacked. This causes that we cannot execute offline the implementation for the safety of public health. Once online, this is something that is completely new to the Indonesian market," he explained.

He also admitted that he did not know the readiness of training institutions for converts as soon as possible from offline to online. Education technology at that time was still too few in Indonesia, in contrast to now which is growing.

At that time, because the training was switched online, it was cheaper, then we could reallocate the budget into an incentive for the community. President Joko Widodo asked the Pre-Employment to play a role in semi-social assistance (bansos). The adaptability of a social program is very important. That is precisely a good program characterization. Even the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) stated that Pre-Employment is a good program because it is proven to maintain stability in the midst of a crisis. He can be flexible and adaptable to the existing economic context," he explained.

Moreover, COVID-19 attacks not only the poor but also the middle class or vulnerable to poverty, which they are not listed in regular social assistance recipients such as the Family Hope Program (PKH) and so on.

Departing from there, Pre-Employment is a means of training to increase skills but also as well as social assistance because participants will receive incentives of IDR 600 thousand per month for four months. That was after they completed their training.

"From these incentives, people can buy basic necessities, pay for electricity, pay for water, buy gasoline, and open businesses to support life in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis," said Denni.