Airlangga Requests Companies to Cover 30% of Internship Participants' Allowances

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto has requested companies to cover 20-30% of allowances for participants in the second phase of the National Internship Programme. “We ask them (companies) to share (the burden of allowances). Yes, 20-30% to be borne by corporations,” Airlangga stated when met on the sidelines of the Jakarta Globe Insight event held in Jakarta on Tuesday. Airlangga explained that in the first phase, the government had covered 100% of the allowances for National Internship Programme participants. Therefore, for the second phase, he is asking companies to contribute to the participants’ allowances. “Burden sharing (load distribution) must be encouraged. Last time, it was 100% paid by the government,” said Airlangga. Labour Minister Yassierli officially closed the implementation of the 2025 National Internship Programme Phase I, which ran from 20 October 2025 to 19 April 2026. Based on the comprehensive selection process, 14,952 participants were selected for Phase 1A and 1,160 for Phase 1B, totalling 16,112. During its course, the number of active participants decreased, resulting in 11,110 active participants for 1A and 839 for 1B, totalling 11,949. Participants who complete the six-month programme will receive an internship certificate, while those who participate for more than three months but less than six will receive a certificate of participation. Furthermore, Yassierli stated that they are examining proposals regarding the contribution of allowances for National Internship Programme participants, to be shared between the government and partner companies organising the programme. He said this consideration follows the intensive mentoring from companies to the participants, which he assessed as quite measurable. “We are studying ways to involve companies more actively, so there are already proposals that the allowances must include a shared contribution from the companies, although not dominantly,” said Yassierli.