MPR: Government Needs to Align University Education with Job Market Demands

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Deputy Chair of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) of the Republic of Indonesia, Lestari Moerdijat, stated that the government needs to take action to align the knowledge taught in higher education institutions with the requirements of the job market. This must be done swiftly, as many university graduates remain unemployed because their skills do not match the needs of the working world. “Efforts to end the mismatch between labour market needs and the quality of university graduates cannot be delayed any longer, amid the changes occurring in various sectors,” said Mbak Rerie, her familiar nickname, in an official statement received in Jakarta on Tuesday. She noted that data from the Central Bureau of Statistics records the number of unemployed in Indonesia at 7.28 million people as of February 2025. Of that number, around 1.01 million are university graduates. This data, Rerie continued, proves the existence of a gap between the knowledge taught in higher education and the needs of the job market. She added that many factors cause human resources qualifications to advance ahead of the knowledge taught at universities or higher education institutions, one of which is the rapid development of technology in the current era of globalisation. To anticipate this, Rerie said the government needs to collaborate with higher education institutions and companies to align study programmes with job opportunities. In addition, the government and universities must continue to move dynamically in updating study programmes to follow developments in job market needs. With these efforts, Rerie is confident that the number of unemployed can be reduced and employers can find individuals with high qualifications in their fields. “Immediate steps to anticipate these changes are expected to curb the current unemployment rate,” she said.