Health graduates unable to find jobs

JAKARTA (JP): Only about 20 percent of an average 5,000 health school graduates per year were able to find jobs, while the rest went jobless, Minister of Health and Social Welfare Achmad Sujudi said on Thursday.

"The latest data from the Central Bureau of Statistic show that the country is home to about 37 million unemployed people, including the health workers," Sujudi told the media after opening a seminar here on the strategic use of health worker graduates.

The health workers included those who graduated from nursing, nutrition, environmental and sanitary schools, as well as dental care institutions, Achmad said.

"Actually, there are over 900,000 job offers for health workers abroad, but Indonesia cannot meet the demand due to the graduates' lack of skills and technological knowledge," he added.

In the previous two years, only about 300 Indonesian health workers were qualified enough to work abroad and they were sent to countries such as Brunei and Kuwait, he said.

"In an effort to cope with the problem, the ministry is setting a cooperation team to channel these workers to various companies here, such as those involved in food manufacturing and hotel services, for nutrition and sanitary jobs, and the sea transportation or exploration companies for environmental graduates," he added.

Among the prospective companies are oil firm PT Caltex, food producers PT Nutrifood Indonesia, PT Indofood Sukses Makmur, PT Mead Johnson and PT Nestle.

"The ministry is no longer able to absorb all health school graduates and, therefore, they have to be professional and work in the private sector," Achmad added. (edt)