Labour Minister Targets Expansion of Regional Coverage and Fields in National Internship Programme

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Minister of Manpower (Menaker) Yassierli is targeting the expansion of the implementation area and fields of work in the 2026 National Internship Programme.

He conveyed this after receiving aspirations and input from Commission IX of the DPR RI during a working meeting held at the Senayan parliamentary complex in Jakarta on Thursday.

“The key to the internship is that its distribution must be even, and that is what Commission IX requested. So the distribution starts from Western Indonesia, Central Indonesia, Eastern Indonesia. It must not just pile up in Jakarta,” said the Menaker in Jakarta on Thursday.

Furthermore, Yassierli stated that expanding the regional coverage of the National Internship Programme is important as one of the efforts to reduce the open unemployment rate (TPT) in Indonesia.

Based on the latest data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), the TPT in November 2025 was 4.74 percent, or down 0.11 percentage points from August 2025.

“Because they (Commission IX of the DPR RI) hope that this internship programme must also become one of the solutions to overcoming TPT, open unemployment, so they hope that if a region or area has a high unemployment rate, then the proportion of internships is greater, that is the hope,” said the Menaker.

In addition, Yassierli also encouraged companies to expand the distribution related to fields in this year’s National Internship Programme.

“We certainly do not want only one specific field of engineering or management that is accepted by everyone. So that is what we must oversee when the 2026 National Internship Programme is rolled out,” he said.

Meanwhile, Minister of Manpower Yassierli also proposed increasing the quota of participants in the 2026 National Internship Programme to 150,000 people, after last year it was 100,000 people.

“So indeed we are proposing because of the extraordinary enthusiasm. We are indeed proposing (an increase in the quota of National Internship participants), this is just a proposal, 150,000 people,” he added.

This proposal, continued the Menaker, has been conveyed to President Prabowo Subianto, while discussing and awaiting approval for budget availability.

In addition, he also ensured that monitoring and evaluation of the first and second stages of the National Internship continues to run and be improved.