Visit Yogyakarta, Coordinating Minister Airlangga Appreciates Alumni Of Pre-Employment Card Program

Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Airlangga Hartarto. (Photo: Doc. Coordinating Ministry for the Economy)

JAKARTA - The Pre-Employment Card Program has received great attention from the public during this pandemic. The enthusiasm of the community can be seen from the 75 million people who have registered since the program was first launched in 2020. Through the Pre-Employment Card Program, the government has distributed incentives of Rp13.36 trillion in 2020 and for this year Rp9.42 trillion has also been distributed as recorded as of October 2021.

The inclusive Pre-Employment Card program reaches participants in 514 regencies/cities throughout Indonesia and the number of recipients in each province is increasing. In every opportunity for a working visit, the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto also met directly with the recipients of the Pre-Employment Card Program to listen to the joys and sorrows of the alumni of the Pre-Employment Card Program and have a dialogue about the benefits that have been received after receiving training and incentives from the program.

Starting a series of agendas during his working visit to the Special Region of Yogyakarta Province on Friday, October 8, Coordinating Minister Airlangga also met face-to-face and talked directly with alumni of the Pre-Employment Card Program in the culinary area of Karangmloko, Yogyakarta.

For information, the Province of the Special Region of Yogyakarta is one of the provinces that has the number of recipients of the Pre-Employment Card Program increasing from 2020 to 2021 and based on the number of recipients, it is in the 16th position nationally.

From waves 1 to 21, the total recipients of the Pre-Employment Card Program in the Special Region of Yogyakarta were 258,176 recipients. In detail, the number of recipients of the Pre-Employment Card Program in the Special Region of Yogyakarta has increased, namely in 2020 there were 98,619 recipients and in 2021 there were 149,557 recipients.

"I really appreciate the alumni of the Pre-Employment Card Program who are tenacious and still eager to develop their abilities during the pandemic by taking advantage of programs initiated by the Government and seeing this as an opportunity," said Coordinating Minister Airlangga.

The five regencies in the Special Region of Yogyakarta Province that have the highest number of recipients are Sleman Regency, Bantul Regency, Gunungkidul Regency, Yogyakarta City and Kulon Progo Regency. As many as 55 percent of recipients are SMA/SMK graduates and in terms of age, 30 percent of recipients are between the ages of 26 to 35 years.

The success of the Pre-Employment Card Program is highly dependent on how the recipients make use of the existing training. Coordinating Minister Airlangga invited all Pre-Employment Card recipients to use this opportunity for skilling, upskilling, and reskilling.

In the casual discussion, the alumni who attended came from various fields ranging from tour guides, administrative staff at a school, online freelance teachers, freelancers in the creative industry sector, employees of fintech companies, culinary and digital marketing.

These alumni of the Pre-Employment Card Program in Yogyakarta proved that the certificates and benefits obtained from the Pre-Employment Card Program can not only be used for entrepreneurship but can also support careers for those who work as staff or employees. On this occasion, KUR was also distributed from Bank BNI to debtors who were alumni of the Pre-Employment Card Program.

"This Pre-Employment Card Program will continue next year," said Coordinating Minister Airlangga.

Along with the 265th Anniversary of the City of Yogyakarta on October 7, 2021, Coordinating Minister Airlangga attended with the hope that the theme of this year's Yogyakarta Anniversary, namely Responding, Tanggon and Tuwuh, could be the principles applied by the people of Yogyakarta City in facing the pandemic.

This can be a momentum for the people of the City of Yogyakarta to continue to adapt, be strong and continue to develop in the face of the pandemic period and be able to re-strengthen the regional economy, especially through the tourism sector, so that it will recover quickly along with the pandemic that is getting under control.

"In the Pre-Employment Card Program there are also several trainings that can support the tourism sector, for example English, which training can be taken to improve the language skills of tour guides. The government will also reopen international ports in Bali and the Riau Islands. There are also several major events after the PON which will be held in Indonesia and regulations have been prepared and maintain health protocols. So with this encouragement, the tourism sector can jumpstart, "concluded Coordinating Minister Airlangga.