Support Regional Economic Growth, Ministry Of Industry For Quality Of Human Resources For Agro Industrial Engineering In South Sulawesi
JAKARTA - Barru Regency is one of the areas that contributes to the economic growth of South Sulawesi. With a population of approximately 170 thousand people, Barru Regency is heading to the Special Economic Zone (KEK) with development starting in 2020.
"This development is an opportunity for Barru Regency to absorb industrial workers in its area. Competitive human resources (HR) are needed to meet industrial needs in the future," said Head of the Industrial Human Resources Development Agency (BPSDMI) of the Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin), Arus Gunawan in Jakarta, Saturday, December 31.
The current says that the existence of skilled human resources is an important factor in supporting industrial growth, because industry is one of the sectors that absorbs large amounts of labor.
"In an effort to create competent industrial human resources, we have held vocational higher education at several levels, ranging from Diploma to Applied Masters, including programs equivalent to Diploma 1 industrial cooperation," he explained.
In Barru Regency itself, the Setara D1 Program for Agro Industrial Engineering has been implemented from the results of cooperation between the Barru Regency Government, South Sulawesi Province, and the AtI Makassar Polytechnic as one of the vocational education units under the guidance of the Ministry of Industry's BPSDMI.
Furthermore, Arus said, Equivalent D1 Industrial Cooperation education was carried out for one year and the graduates were immediately absorbed in working in the industrial sector. In addition, students participate in Field or Trade Work Practices every end of each semester for three months, so that from one year of education, 50 percent of learning activities are carried out directly in the industry.
This Equivalent D1 Education This Industrial Cooperation is part of the BPSDMI Kemenperin policy towards Corporate University.
"One of the missions that must be realized by our polytechnic is to carry out education in a dual system with a learning model through STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) which is of global standard and develops industrial class," he explained.
Meanwhile, Head of the BPSDMI Industrial Vocational Education Development Center at the Ministry of Industry, Restu Yuni Widayati, said that the Equivalent D1 education of Industrial Cooperation was carried out as a tangible manifestation of the synergy between the government, educational institutions and the industrial world.
"Through this strategic program, it is hoped that it can reduce the competency gap between the industrial world and the world of education which has finally created competent industrial human resources without the industry's retraining program," said Restu.
According to Restu, in the D1 Agro Industrial Engineering Education program in Barru Regency, the ATI Makassar Polytechnic will provide teaching staff and facilities, while the relevant industry will receive D1 graduates in accordance with a cooperation agreement, so that graduates will immediately work.
"We hope that this program is a real effort by the Ministry of Industry in overcoming industrial human resources problems, namely the large number of open unemployment, low labor force education rates, and low labor productivity," he concluded.
Activities in the industrial sector have had a positive impact on regional economic growth.
This is evidenced by the economic growth of South Sulawesi Province which grew by 5.67 percent (y-on-y). The downstreaming of the manufacturing industry in the agro sector is one of the reasons for economic growth in the area.
For your information, since 2021, the Ministry of Industry has facilitated 981 students to take part in this education, which is spread across 21 regencies/cities, in 11 provinces.
In its implementation, the Setara D1 Education Program is organized by the Ministry of Industry's education unit in collaboration with industry.