Minister Latief wants `tailor made' training program

Minister Latief wants `tailor made' training program

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief yesterday
appealed to all administrators of the government's vocational
training centers to design their programs to meet the needs of
industry.

"We have to provide skills for workers that are being sought
in the labor market," Latief said during a meeting with the heads
of the vocational training centers.

In an unusually frank admission, Latief said these centers
have not been effective in the past in providing the kind of
skilled workers the industry needs.

They existed apparently to simply spend the funds allocated by
the government, he said.

He called for the curriculum to be revamped and said that each
center must work closely with the provincial administration and
industries in their respective locality in designing the
curriculum.

Citing an example, he said the center in Bali could develop
programs for the needs of the island's tourism industry.

Latief said now is the time for Indonesia to upgrade the
quality of its workforce because the rapid economic growth is
opening up job opportunities that could only be filled by skilled
workers.

He said Indonesia is also phasing out expatriates who were
hired because of the shortage of professional workers in the
country. The government is also sending fewer unskilled workers
abroad and for this better training facilities are needed.

While there may be large unemployment among the unskilled
workers in Indonesia, the situation is vastly different for
skilled workers.

"There is always a vacancy for skilled workers at home or
overseas," Latief said. "Malaysia needs 17,000 skilled Indonesian
workers, and local companies have had to hire foreigners to fill
certain positions because they could not find Indonesians who are
qualified for the jobs."

Refuted

Latief last month also launched a new apprenticeship program
which uses the vocational training centers as the basis to work
in cooperation with the industry which hires the trainees and
provides them with the necessary facilities.

Meanwhile, Director General for Industrial Relations and Labor
Standards Suwarto in a separate occasion yesterday refuted the
suggestion by the East Java office of the Legal Aid Institute
(LBH) that the majority of companies in the province are not
paying their workers the minimum wage.

The LBH said its own survey found that as many as 86 percent
of 24,000 companies in the province have violated the minimum
wage rules. The government claims only four percent have not
complied.

Suwarto questioned the validity of the LBH's survey based on
what he perceives as weaknesses in the methods of collecting the
data, including the fact that some of the respondents were not
clearly identified. (rms)