Firms must pay for industrial apprenticeship program: Expert
Firms must pay for industrial apprenticeship program: Expert
BANDUNG (JP): The new industrial apprenticeship program
launched by the Ministry of Manpower should be financed by the
industrial community because they are the chief beneficiary of
the program, according to a German expert.
Manfred Diehl, manager of the Indonesia-Germany technical
assistance project at the Bandung Instructor Training Center
(BLIB), says the best way to ensure cooperation from the private
business sector is through legislation.
"Entrepreneurs should realize that the apprenticeship program
will benefit them," Diehl told The Jakarta Post. A similar
apprenticeship program in Germany is financed by the private
business sector, he said.
Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief launched his apprenticeship
program early this year, enlisting the support of hundreds of
companies. But the program is still essentially a government
initiative and financed by the government with some financial
assistance from the German government.
Diehl said that without more funding from the private
business sector, the program is likely to move slowly.
Germany has chipped in DM 8.8 million (Rp 12.3 billion) in
the technical assistance towards the Bandung Instructor Training
Center (BLIB), which is a vital component of Latief's
apprenticeship program.
Diehl said a possible alternative to the government's
apprenticeship program is to compel all companies to set up their
own in-house training centers.
The larger corporations should have no problem with this plan
while the smaller companies could probably pool their resources
and jointly establish their training centers, he said.
Such a scheme will go a long way towards improving the
quality of Indonesian workers, he said.
Diehl, who has a masters in business administration and a PhD
in machining, warns that the apprenticeship program cannot be
expected to solve Indonesia's main labor problem of creating
enough job opportunities for its ever growing labor force.
"Training centers do not create jobs," he said. Even if all
workers are skilled, the unemployment problem in Indonesia will
remain because of the limited number of job opportunities. .
The key lies in another of Latief's new programs, the one
aimed at training youths to gain entrepreneurial skill and
spirit, he said.
Diehl notes, however, that Indonesia is making progress in
improving the quality of its work force, attributing this largely
to the government's education and labor policies. "The time will
come for this nation to see that most of the people are educated
and skilled. And it is in the process," he said.(rms)