Minister Yassierli Considers Mandating Companies to Hire National Internship Participants

Labour Minister Yassierli is considering a proposal from members of Commission IX of the House of Representatives to mandate companies to recruit national internship participants as employees. “There is input regarding the obligation for companies to accept a certain percentage, and so on,” said Yassierli during a working meeting with Commission IX of the DPR, broadcast live on YouTube, on Thursday, 9 April 2026. One member of Commission IX of the DPR who raised the issue of absorbing workers from the national internship programme was Netty Prasetiyani Heryawan. She asked Yassierli to sharpen the achievements of the national programme so that it is not only oriented towards absorbing internship participants. More than that, Netty asked the Ministry of Manpower to publicise the number of internship participants who are appointed as company employees. “This will certainly be one of the added values of the national internship programme,” said the PKS politician. Responding to the input from parliament members, Yassierli said the national internship programme was initially established to improve competencies and provide exposure to the working world. However, he said he agrees with DPR members that the focus of the internship programme should be on workforce absorption. Yassierli promised to study the proposal. In addition, Yassierli stated that the Ministry of Manpower will evaluate the national internship programme phase I and make improvements for this year’s implementation. On the same occasion, Yassierli said the Ministry of Manpower has blacklisted companies complained about by internship participants through reporting channels. However, he is optimistic that public enthusiasm for the national internship programme remains high. For the national internship programme scheduled to take place in the middle of this year, Yassierli promised that the government will provide more company options than the number of participants. To members of Commission IX of the DPR, Yassierli also conveyed a proposal to increase the number of national internship participants for the 2026 period to 150,000 people. “This is just a proposal, the letter has been submitted to Mr President,” he said. Yassierli said the Ministry of Manpower is still waiting for budget availability. He also hopes that the Ministry of Finance will provide support so that the national internship programme can continue this year. The proposed number of participants conveyed by Yassierli is higher than the initial plan. Previously, Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya said the government is preparing a quota of 100,000 participants to join the programme to be implemented in the middle of this year.