Proud, Pre-Employment Card Program Appreciated By The World, Airlangga: 12 Million Participants Enjoyed The Benefits

JAKARTA – The Indonesian government should be proud. According to the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto, the Pre-Employment Card Program has received worldwide appreciation. In fact, this program will be appointed at the World Economic Forum Davos, Switzerland in May 2022.

"The Pre-Employment Card Program is one of the main topics I will address when speaking at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, May 22-26, 2022," said Airlangga Hartato in a press release received in Jakarta, Sunday, May 22.

Airlangga said the Pre-Employment Card Program received much praise for being one of the successful National Economic Recovery programs in responding quickly to the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As a semi-social assistance program, the Pre-Employment Card does not only help workers who have been laid off during the pandemic and improve the skills of the workforce. But broadly, it also contributes to the birth of strong young entrepreneurs and opens up new job opportunities,” he said.

Based on data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), the open unemployment rate from 6.26 percent in February 2021 fell to 5.83 percent in February 2022.

"In a period of two years, the real benefits of the Pre-Employment Card Program have been enjoyed by 12 million participants and so far 30 registration waves have entered," he said.

Airlangga said various international institutions such as UNDP expressed their appreciation because the Pre-Employment Card program was considered successful in overcoming layoffs and other employment problems during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Pre-Employment Card will also be presented at the UNESCO conference because it is considered a successful model in preparing the workforce for future job demands.

"The Indonesian government will share experiences about the Pre-Employment Card Program with the world at the CONFINTEA VII forum organized by UNESCO in mid-June in Morocco," said the General Chair of the Golkar Party.

Executive Director of the Pre-Employment Card Program Executive Management Denni Puspa Purbasari said the Pre-Employment Card Program was able to facilitate Pre-Employment Card recipients to adapt to changing job recruitment trends that had left the paper-based model.

Now job vacancies, sending CVs, skill certificates, interviews, technical tests, to onboarding new employees and job fairs are mostly done online, Denni added.

“In the past, applicants printed their CV, attached a photocopy of the certificate, put it in an envelope, then sent it to the office or entrusted it to the security guard to give it to HRD. Many ways like this have been abandoned," he said.

Denni emphasized the online mechanism emphasized in Pre-Employment to accelerate the digital literacy of the workforce in the country, so that they can apply for more jobs and their chances of getting a job are greater.

Since the job recommendation feature was released on the Pre-Employment dashboard, more than 5,500 job openings have been accessible. The Implementing Management Survey shows 63 percent of Pre-Employment card recipients who see this job recommendation feature and apply, are called for a job selection.

Regarding praise from various international institutions, Denni said that this was due to the many pillars of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) touched by the Pre-Employment Program, ranging from adult learning, empowering women, reducing inequality, unemployment, multi-stakeholder partnerships to financial inclusion.

"The many aspects of the SDGs that have been touched on, the findings of supporting scientific studies, and the digital methods used are the reasons why Pre-Employment receives positive attention from international institutions," he said.

The Pre-Employment Card program is considered a use case for the successful digital transformation of the Government of Indonesia's public services. "We need a new way, through the use of digital technology, to be able to deliver the program quickly and precisely so that there is no one left behind," said Denni, as quoted by Antara.