College grads inspired to be job creators

College grads inspired to be job creators

Debbie A. Lubis, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indra Marwan, a 32-year-old finance and banking major has filled
out hundreds of job applications over the last five years.
Despite two years experience in a financial institution, he has
not been able to get any job since he was laid off in 1997.

Oddie Bahar, 23, a fresh graduate of Bandung Institute of
Technology majoring in fine arts, said that he chose not to apply
for a formal job due to the unconducive labor market but,
instead, was trying out his entrepreneurial skills.

Indra and Oddie are two of nearly one million job seekers who
have spent some five years studying at university but are still
unemployed.

Education expert Arief Rachman regretted that students are
been given too many scientific theories during their study and no
programs were implemented to develop practical skills to apply
their knowledge in the real world.

"Universities should change the students' mind-set from being
job seekers to job creators through an equal balance of theory
and practice in every lecture," he told The Jakarta Post

The high unemployment rate among college graduates was
revealed in the latest report of the Central Bureau of Statistics
(BPS) last Monday. It reported that some 7.7 percent of 8 million
jobless people were college graduates.

The country has a total labor force of 97.6 million.

"This is not something I had anticipated. I have to work as an
employee because it is impossible for me to establish my own
finance company," Indra said, adding that his job applications
were often rejected since most companies sought candidates from
reputable universities and with several years work experience.

University of Indonesia Rector Usman Chatib Warsa said that
the inclusion of entrepreneurship in universities' curriculum
would help encourage graduates to create jobs, instead of seeking
jobs.

"Graduates from any discipline must be able to create jobs
because with the entrepreneurship program, they are expected to
have the competence and skills to do business ," he said, adding
that the Ministry of National Education has suggested that
universities develop the entrepreneurship program in their
undergraduate curriculum.

Usman believes that the excessive number of university
graduates and limited available jobs would not be a problem if
universities prepare students with entrepreneurial skills.

"I decided to apply my know-how in fine arts through drawing
comics so that I don't have to be concerned with the fierce
competition among job seekers," Oddie said.

Arief, also the chairman of the National Committee for UNESCO,
urged the government and universities to inform prospective
students about the availability of job opportunities before they
chose their field of study.

"The government can also make strategic plans and based on
available data, provide information as to what disciplines would
be useful, because the data will show which market is already
saturated by graduates from certain majors," he said.