Government to Continue Pre-Employment Cards in 2023, Indef Economist: Must Focus on Improving HR Quality

JAKARTA - The government is preparing to implement the Pre-Employment Card program for 2023 with the normal scheme which will start in the first quarter of 2023.

Indef economist Nailul Huda said the Pre-Employment Card program must focus on improving the quality of human resources (HR).

"I think the Pre-Employment Card program focuses on improving the quality of our human resources. Don't mix it up with other programs that I think already have a budget," he said in Jakarta, Tuesday, December 20.

According to Nailul, the Pre-Employment Card Program should prioritize the quality of human resources. By improving the quality of human resources, their competitiveness in the world of work will be more competitive.

During the dark times of the world's economic slowdown, said Nailul, there were indeed opportunities for mass layoffs and other challenges.

However, to mitigate this risk, the government has other programs. For example job loss insurance (JKP).

"So, indeed this Pre-Employment Card Program card is like a chameleon where when COVID-19 it becomes semi-social assistance, when a recession occurs it becomes semi Job Loss Guarantee (JKP)," said Nailul.

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Meanwhile, Head of the Center for Population Research-National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) Nawawi assesses that Pre-Employment Cards are more appropriate when carried out on a hands-on basis.

"I totally agree that the training held for the Pre-Employment Card is carried out on a hands-on basis," said Nawawi.

In Nawawi's opinion, the competent institution to implement the program is the vocational training center (BLK). The institution also deserves to be aligned and collaborate with the industry.

"One thing to note, which institution is competent to carry out this training? BLK must collaborate with industry or other skilling institutions," he emphasized.

Nawawi also stressed the importance of the participant selection process based on the participants' needs. This is also in accordance with the main objectives of the Pre-Employment Card, namely skilling, reskilling and upskilling.

"The selection of participants must also be adjusted to the target audience in need. It can be classified for new job seekers, workers who have been laid off, and workers who want to improve their skills in their fields," he said.

He regretted that there were incentives in the Pre-Employment Card.

He considered that ideally the Pre-Employment Card should not be mixed with social assistance (Bansos), so that participants who take the Pre-Employment Card really want to benefit in the form of skills and expertise.

"But unfortunately for the next one there is still the term incentive. If this incentive is abolished, it means those who want to get facilities from the Pre-Employment Card, purely because they want to learn and get new skills," he said.

So far, policy makers have made a second amendment to the Presidential Regulation regarding the Pre-Employment Card which has been stipulated through Presidential Regulation of the Republic of Indonesia Number 113 of 2022, followed by changes to the Regulation of the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs as implementing regulations through Permenko Number 17 of 2022.

Previously, the Coordinating Minister (Menko) for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto explained that the normal scheme was a Pre-Employment Card program scheme that focused more on assistance to increase the skills and productivity of the workforce.

The assistance is in the form of training costs directly to participants and also incentives after completing the training, with a variety of skilling, reskilling, and upskilling training.

"As the COVID-19 pandemic begins to recover which will become endemic, it is hoped that the Job Creation Committee will immediately carry out the normal scheme with offline training which is the initial design of the Pre-Employment Card Program," said Airlangga.