Most companies go for dedication and loyalty

Most companies go for dedication and loyalty

BANDUNG (JP): Most companies in Indonesia choose personality,
dedication and loyalty over skill in their decision to hire
workers, a senior official at the Ministry of Manpower claims.

Andi M. Sangadji, the Director General for Training and
Productivity Affairs, told a seminar on Thursday that most
company executives he talked to said that a worker's skill is
secondary to the above factors because skill can be obtained
through training.

Sangadji said that an apprenticeship program run by his
ministry has modified its methods to also help develop a sense of
loyalty and dedication among program participants, besides
providing them with skills.

Speaking during a workshop to review the apprenticeship
program with business executives in West Java, Sangadji
underlined the benefits that companies stand to reap by taking
part in the program.

He assured that after completing their apprenticeship, the
participants will have developed strong loyalty for the company
that provided the training.

The companies also benefit from their labor without having to
pay them a full salary, he added.

The apprenticeship program runs for three years with
participants spending at least 24 months working as a trainee.
The government has enlisted 500 companies throughout Indonesia to
provide the training.

The program is run from the government's vocational training
centers found across the nation. It was introduced at 11 training
centers in 1994 and 31 in 1995.

There are 154 vocational training centers managed by the
Ministry of Manpower.

A training center in Lembang, near here, specializes in
providing work experience in agro-based industries, with training
in Japan.

Since 1993, the center has sent 1,673 apprentices in 27 groups
to work in small and medium-sized Japanese companies for two
years.

The first groups started to return in May.

Some of the 240 participants have since started their own
company or gone to work for Japanese joint venture companies in
Indonesia.

Ichiro Kudo, the head of the Jakarta office of the Japanese
Association for International Manpower Development of Medium and
Small Enterprises, said the association monitors the progress of
the participants when they return to Indonesia.

The Lembang vocational training center provides participants
with a Japanese language and culture course along with basic
agriculture skills and knowledge.

The center is sending 102 participants to Japan this month.
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