Internship Allowance Sharing Scheme Could Reduce Company Participation

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Professor of Labour Law at the University of Krisnadwipayana, Payaman Simanjuntak, assesses that the scheme for sharing the burden between the government and companies in providing internship allowances to participants could potentially reduce business participation.

According to him, the interest of companies, especially medium and large-scale ones, has already been limited even when the government fully covered the internship allowances in the initial stage.

“If the government now encourages companies to contribute 20-30 percent to the internship allowances, that is reasonable. However, the intention needs to be clear: is it as an addition for the internship participants or to reduce the government’s burden?” Payaman told ANTARA in Jakarta on Wednesday (29/4).

As is known, for the first stage of the National Internship Programme, the internship allowance for participants, valued at the equivalent of the district/city minimum wage (UMK) or provincial minimum wage (UMP), is fully covered through the state budget (APBN).

Payaman explained that in the first stage of the programme, companies were only asked to provide transport and meal reimbursements. Therefore, he believes the government needs to clarify the objectives of the new policy on burden-sharing.

“Because the previous internship programme only required companies to provide transport and meal reimbursements for participants,” he clarified.

“We ask them (companies) to share (the burden of the allowance). Yes, 20-30 percent borne by the corporations,” said Airlangga when met on the sidelines of the Jakarta Globe Insight event in Jakarta on Tuesday (29/4).

He explained that in the first stage, the government had covered 100 percent of the internship allowances, so for the next stage, a burden-sharing scheme needs to be encouraged.

“Burden-sharing must be promoted. Previously, it was 100 percent paid by the government,” he said.

On the other hand, Minister of Manpower Yassierli has closed the implementation of the 2025 National Internship Programme Phase I, which ran from 20 October 2025 to 19 April 2026.

From the selection process, 16,112 participants passed, consisting of 14,952 in phase 1A and 1,160 in phase 1B. However, the number of active participants decreased to 11,949, namely 11,110 in 1A and 839 in 1B.

Participants who complete the six-month programme will receive an internship certificate, while those who participate for more than three months but less than six months will receive a certificate of participation.

Yassierli stated that the government is currently reviewing proposals for contributions to internship allowances between the government and partner companies, in line with the intensity of mentoring provided by companies to participants.

“We are reviewing ways to involve companies more actively, so there are already proposals that the allowance should include shared contributions from the companies, although not dominantly,” he said.

The second phase of the National Internship Programme is planned to open for around 150,000 participants.