Labour Minister: Technological disruption offers opportunity to develop new skills
Jakarta - Indonesia’s Minister of Labour (Menaker) Yassierli has stated that digital technological disruption, including artificial intelligence (AI), represents an opportunity for the young workforce to develop new skills.
“So prepare yourselves, competency will certainly be tested, current shifts become future opportunities. So continue equipping yourselves and supplement with specific competencies,” said the Labour Minister during an interview at the Ministry of Labour’s office in Jakarta on Wednesday.
He stated that these new skills open further employment opportunities increasingly relevant to changing times.
“Young workers must prepare, understand what the labour market looks like now and in the future, market entry readiness. There is disruption related to green jobs, digitalisation, which impacts the labour market,” Yassierli explained.
The Minister emphasised that young workers must prepare not only in terms of competencies but also in other aspects, specifically strengthening technical skills and soft skills.
“The main thing is technical competency or technical skill, then soft skill competency which includes language, soft skill, human skills - they also need to prepare these,” said Yassierli.
He stressed that these three types of readiness are crucial because the world of work faces global uncertainty, increasingly fierce international competition, and massive technological disruption.
In such circumstances, he continued, young people must be more adaptable to avoid falling behind when entering the workforce, whilst being able to capture emerging opportunities.
“For example, how AI as a tool can help everyone increase productivity,” said Labour Minister Yassierli.
One effort undertaken by the government is implementing several supporting programmes such as the National Apprenticeship (Magang Nasional) scheme, aimed at fresh graduates from higher education institutions, and the National Vocational Training (Pelatihan Vokasi Nasional) programme for senior and vocational secondary school graduates.
“With the National Vocational Training programme, we train them. Meanwhile, with the National Apprenticeship scheme, we are not the ones training - we place them with companies, giving them the opportunity to gain direct experience about how work operates, the working world, and so forth,” explained the Minister.
“So these are two programmes with the same essence - to better prepare them and make them more ready to work,” he added.