Labor training centers, facilities unused

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A number of labor training centers nationwide have for years been left unused or converted for other purposes.

Head of the Center for Research, Development and Information at the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration Harry Heriawan Saleh said the condition proved a lack of awareness among regional governments of training for workers in the face of the free labor market.

Harry blamed regional autonomy for the neglect of the centers.

"Activities have ceased at many training centers, and some of them have been converted into ordinary office buildings as regional governments do not consider them important or relevant to the development programs there," Harry said on Monday.

The central government has decentralized the management of 148 of 157 labor training centers.

"According to our evaluation and internal audit, only the training center in Surabaya has functioned well, while many have cut their training programs and many others have stopped their activities," Harry said.

Separately, Director General of Manpower Placement and Training Kirnadi said that in this fiscal year, the government had distributed Rp 60 billion (US$6.18 million) in funds to regions to arrange labor training programs regardless of the fact that many regions had stopped labor training activities.

"We will ask regional governments to restart the labor training activities and push ahead with labor training programs," Kirnadi said.

There are nine training centers exempt from decentralization. Kirnadi said the training centers had performed well, particularly in training workers bound for employment in Japan, Taiwan and Korea.

Harry and Kirnadi are of the same opinion that the government and the House of Representatives should review Law No. 32/2004 on regional administration in order to put all training centers back under the supervision of the manpower ministry.

Harry said his office had planned to cooperate with the new National Board for Certification of Professions (BNSP) in establishing competence-based training schemes.

Both officials said that the government should show evidence of its accountability for billions of dollars of money collected from expatriates and Indonesian workers sent overseas, and require all private- and government-owned labor training centers to implement competence-based training programs.

Meanwhile, BNSP chairman Mudjiman said the board in cooperation with associations of professionals was still preparing the necessary infrastructure to provide certification for professionals.

"The BNSP has set up units in all sectors and is still preparing thousands of competence tests for all kinds of job in all sectors. It is also preparing an expert team to lobby other relevant countries to accept our labor standards and certificates," he said.

He said in spite of the low quality of Indonesia's human resources, professionals would need to be certified in accordance with internationally accepted standards.