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)