More companies to join apprenticeship program

JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Education and Culture has enlisted 9,000 manufacturing companies to provide apprenticeships for students of state-run vocational high schools.

Aburizal Bakrie, the chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told a seminar yesterday that he was hopeful that more companies would join the program as they realized the potential benefits to themselves.

He was speaking to reporters after a seminar reviewing the progress of the apprenticeship program since its launch by the Ministry of Education and Culture last year. When the scheme began, about 6,000 companies were enlisted.

Under the "double system" introduced in some of the country's vocational high schools last year, students would spend six months learning theory at school followed by six months training at factories.

Aburizal, who is also the chairman of the National Council for Vocational Education, said he hoped that, eventually, between 20,000 and 30,000 firms would participate in the program.

Lack of skilled workers is one of the biggest problems facing many Indonesian companies, and that, consequently, they have a real interest in taking part in the double system program.

Aburizal said there should be a regulation compelling companies to participate in the apprenticeship program, in order to increase its effectiveness.

However, he acknowledged the concerns expressed by some businessmen that the apprentices who were trained at their companies might then work somewhere else, possibly even for their competitors, upon the completion of their studies.

Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro said in his keynote address to the seminar that the double system had now expanded to 500 schools from 250 in 1994.

Next year, the program should cover 800 of the 3,000 vocational high schools run by the government, he added.

Wardiman said the program is expected to help the participants in making job applications once they have completed their three- year courses of study at the vocational schools.

By the time they graduate, the students should also have good work ethics, he added. (05)