The Suspension Rate Is Still High Compared To Before The Pandemic, The Vice President Encourages BLK For The Highlighted Community Of Problems In The Field

Illustration of job seekers visiting the Job Exchange Exhibition at the GBK Stadium, Jakarta, December 2019. (ANTARA-Wahyu P A)

JAKARTA - Vice President (Vice President) Maruf Amin assesses that the development of the ecosystem and transformation of the Job Training Center (BLK) in the community is one of the policies that can target human resource problems (HR) in the midst of the national and global economic situation.

"The development of the ecosystem and transformation of the Job Training Center in the community is one of the policies that I value that can target problems in the field," said the Vice President in his remarks online at the 'Inauguration of Community Work Training Center and Acceleration of Community BLK Independence 2022', Sunday 23 October.

He said the development of human resources as one of the priority programs met challenges when faced with a national and global economic situation, which was colored by uncertainty and demanded that the Indonesian people adapt quickly.

According to him, the current difficulty of conditions is shown, among others, by the high unemployment rate.

Although the number of open unemployment in February 2022 is reduced compared to the same period in 2021, Indonesia's current unemployment rate is still higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The vice president explained that the distribution of unemployment was dominated by 11.45 percent of vocational school graduates, 8.55 percent of high school graduates, and 6.97 percent of college graduates.

In addition, based on Antara's report, towards the end of 2022, the Vice President continued, the national employment conditions were less encouraging because there was a wave of employee layoffs, especially in the start-up and manufacturing sectors. This has an impact on the fate of hundreds of thousands of employees.

"The cause of this condition is not single. There are many related factors, so the solutions we need to take cannot be partial but must be comprehensive. These factors include technological developments that force labor efficiency, exacerbated by the unpreparedness to adapt to very fast changes. Finally, the world of work competition is getting tighter," he explained.

Therefore, the Vice President assessed that BLK in the community could be one of the policies that could overcome problems on the ground.

Ma'ruf Amin explained that BLK focuses on increasing the competence of informal workers with lower middle school education levels. Thus, BLK is expected to be able to answer the problem of unemployment which is still dominated by high school graduates.

Then, the vocational education curriculum compiled by BLK, according to Ma'ruf Amin, can answer the industry's needs to build links and match employment.

"This means that BLK can refresh workers' skills that are no longer relevant to industrial needs. This is what vocational education system is needed in the current era of digital disruption," he said.

The vice president said the BLK was present at the foundations of the community community, such as at the Lirboyo Islamic Boarding School, Kediri. He said the model was unique because prospective workers faced face-to-face learning through business incubators in their respective communities.

"Therefore, I appreciate the presence of BLK Communities in religious educational institutions, such as Islamic boarding schools, seminary, dhammasekha, and pasraman," he added.

Ma'ruf Amin said he was happy because the spread of community BLK development has been increasingly massive since involving trade unions and labor unions since 2021. Currently, more than 2,900 Community BLKs have been established in various regions in Indonesia.

Therefore, he asked all Community BLKs to function effectively, so that the competence, productivity, independence, and competitiveness of Indonesian workers will be higher.

In addition, it is also in accordance with market and industrial needs to help students understand and have the expertise the world of work needs today and the future.

"One of the most sought after expertise in the world of work today is the ability to continue to learn and adapt, because changes occur very quickly and continuously," he concluded.