Government Encourages Vocational Education And Training For Increasing Productivity And Competitiveness Of Indonesian Human Resources

Deputy for Coordination of the Digital Economy, Employment, and MSMEs of the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy Moh Rudy Salahuddin. (Photo: Doc. ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The government has launched Indonesia's Vision 2045 to become a developed country with high income and the fifth largest GDP in the world.

In making it happen, the development of human resources (HR) is one of the main keys that needs to be a common focus.

In addition, with the opportunity for a demographic bonus which is expected to peak in 2030, Indonesia has great potential to take advantage of this opportunity if it can prepare human resources properly.

For this reason, the Indonesian government provides high priority on efforts to revitalize Vocational Education and Training or Technical Vocal Education and Training (TVET).

This is carried out through the issuance of Presidential Regulation (Perpres) Number 68 of 2022.

One of the important points in the Revitalization of Vocational Education and Training is to increase the involvement of the Industrial World Business World (DUDI) in vocational activities, such as the preparation of competency standards, curriculum, provision of internships, and provision of training.

The vocational education and training paradigm, which was previously still a supply driven, is also now directed to be a driving demand that is oriented to the needs of the labor market. Presidential Decree No. 68 of 2022 also emphasizes the importance of collaboration involving Ministries/Institutions (K/L), Regional Governments, DUDI, as well as educational institutions and vocational training.

Efforts to strengthen this collaboration were carried out through the National Coordination Team for the Revitalization of Vocational Education and Vocational Training (TKNV) at the national level, as well as TKDV at the regional level.

"It is hoped that with the collaboration of various parties, we can prepare human resources that can answer industrial needs (demand side), and obtain appropriate input to prepare education and job training (supply side)," said Deputy for Coordination of the Digital Economy, Employment, and MSMEs of the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy Moh Rudy Salahuddin in his statement, Thursday, June 13.

The TVET System Reform 2.0 (TSR 2.0) project itself is an effort to cooperate between the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy of the Republic of Indonesia and the German Development Cooperation Agency, implemented by The Deutsche Gesellschaft f\"ur Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ) on behalf of the Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) of the Federal Republic of Germany.

This project aims to support the implementation of key elements of the Indonesian Government's reform agenda in the field of TVET, including in this case the National Strategy (Stranas) for Vocational.

There have been many achievements obtained during the three years of the implementation of TSR 2.0, including supporting the preparation of the Vocational Stranas and the TVET coordination mechanism through the support of Bundesinstitut f\"ur Berufsbildung (BiBB) or the German TVET coordinating agency, as well as supporting Kadin through the activities of Kadin Capacity Development (KCD), which is systematically designed and practically to help companies carry out vocational activities.

The project also initiated in-company master trainer training to further train workplace coaches distributed throughout the industry.

The TSR 2.0 collaboration also initiated the use of virtual reality (VR) tools, digital instruments that are very effective at helping vocational learning, ranging from overcoming teacher shortages to saving job practice costs.

"I am sure that the results and legacy left from this joint agenda will have an impact and be sustainable. We hope that the cooperation between the Government of Indonesia and Germany can continue in the future in order to advance the TVET System in Indonesia, in order to produce skilled, competitive, and in accordance with the needs of the future work market," said Rudy.

Cluster Coordinator of GIZ Indonesia and ASEAN Thomas Foerch also said that TVET System Reform aims to support the efforts of the Government of Indonesia to reform TVETs in Indonesia, and is carried out through a series of strategic approaches that reflect the experience of Germany developing a dual vocational education system and vocational training.

"In addition, a series of instruments have also been developed to improve the quality of vocational and industrial involvement in Indonesia with partners," he said.