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)