Govt urges establishment of professional standards

Govt urges establishment of professional standards

JAKARTA (JP): The government is calling on Indonesian
professionals to establish standards of competence to serve as a
yardstick and incentive as they prepare for the coming free
market and open competition.

Yudo Swasono, chief of the manpower planning and development
department at the Ministry of Manpower, criticized domestic
professionals for being "stagnant" and for allowing their
organizations to become idle.

"Most of the organizations are stagnant...their activities
remind one of arisan, because the professionals don't spend time
talking about their profession's standard of competence," he was
quoted by Antara as saying.

The term arisan refers to an Indonesian social get-together
where people contribute to, and take turns at, winning an
aggregate sum of money.

Yudo said professional organizations need to anticipate the
impact of open competition here lest they turn into mere
onlookers in their own country.

Standards of competence, Yudo added, will be crucial in the
approaching globalization. To keep abreast of global employment,
local workers must meet their profession's standards of
competence, whether the profession is locally or internationally
established.

According to Yudo, there are only a few professional
organizations that have applied standards of competence, but
these are applied internally rather than on a national level.
These include the Indonesian Medical Association, the Indonesian
Association of Accountants and the Indonesian Engineers
Association.

Local standards of competence are expected to measure up to
the international standards of competence as well, he said.

The recent ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization
(WTO) in Singapore signaled that international employment
opportunities for accountants were being negotiated. An
international standard of competence is expected to be set up
soon.

This means that accountants, who meet the requirements
stipulated by the international standards of competence, may seek
employment in, at least, WTO 128 member countries.

"After accountants, the opportunities will be expanded to
incorporate engineers, computer experts and lawyers," Yudo said.

Speaking about his agency's work in 1996, Yudo lamented the
high rate of unemployed university graduates, about 405,000 or
12.36 percent of those of working age.

"The ideal rate of unemployed university graduates in
developing countries like Indonesia should be around six
percent," Yudo said.

In 1990, there were "only" 118,000 unemployed people with
Bachelor degrees, or 6.7 percent. (06)