Building the Future: Pegadaian Director Urges Young Generation to Do This

PT Pegadaian (Persero) is calling on the younger generation to prepare for a dynamic digital era through a CEO Talks event initiated by Andalas University. The Director of Risk Management, Legal, and Compliance at PT Pegadaian, Ismail Ilyas, shared strategies with students and prospective graduates to strengthen three main pillars for a golden future: understanding financial literacy, competency development, and future financial planning skills. The event, themed ‘Digital Financial Innovation and Financial Inclusion: Pegadaian’s Strategic Role in Community Empowerment’, was designed as an interactive collaboration space between industry and higher education. Its aim is to provide a comprehensive view of the transformation of the financial services industry and the readiness young people need to win in the competitive job market. In his presentation, Ismail Ilyas emphasised that long-term success does not rely solely on academic achievements on paper, but also on character building and intelligence in making financial decisions from an early age. ‘The world of work will continue to transform along with the rapid development of technology. Therefore, the younger generation must become lifelong learners who are adaptive and wise in managing finances. The principle is to ’Buy the Future at Today’s Price’. This means young people must dare to invest and build measurable and sustainable future planning starting now,’ he said. Furthermore, Ismail encouraged students to immediately adopt healthy financial habits once they receive their first income. Concrete steps can begin with allocating emergency funds, setting a priority scale, and choosing safe investment instruments that align with long-term life goals. According to him, financial literacy is an important anchor so that the younger generation does not fall into detrimental consumptive behaviour. Pegadaian is consistently expanding the reach of financial education and inclusion through digital innovation. This collaboration with Andalas University is tangible proof of how literacy can be directly integrated with digital action. The enthusiasm of the participants, predominantly prospective graduates, was massive. Throughout the event, more than 1,000 participants downloaded the Tring application and immediately opened a Pegadaian Gold Savings account. This step serves as initial capital for new graduates to start their first investment before entering the professional world. Through this programme, Pegadaian hopes to continue inspiring and shaping Indonesia’s golden generation to be not only technologically adaptive but also financially mature, ready to actively contribute to driving the national economy.