Private sector told to fund vocational training centers

Private sector told to fund vocational training centers

PALEMBANG, South Sumatra (JP): The private sector must help
fund new vocational training centers, because it will benefit not
only those trained but the private businesses themselves,
Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief says.

Latief says the government is currently revamping the various
existing vocational training centers, all still government
funded, so that they could eventually be financial independent.

The low productivity of Indonesian workers is partly caused by
the absence or lack of effective industrial training programs for
the workers, he said in a keynote address to a seminar by the
Association of Economists (ISEI) here yesterday.

Latief said the private sector is also expected to join the
industrial apprenticeship program which is being launched by the
government at the technical school level.

He appealed to the private sector to work closely with the
government to ensure that the schemes could provide workers with
skills that are useful to the working world.

He said that a number of the government vocational training
centers in West Java, East Java and North Sumatra are already
self-financing.

Middle-sized and large companies, he said, are encouraged to
establish their own training centers.

In return, the government is currently considering various
fiscal and monetary incentives for companies that participate in
the industrial training programs.

He told the seminar participants that Indonesia has no
alternative but to improve the professionalism of its human
resources to catch up with newly-industrialized countries.

"Indonesia will be far lagging behind Malaysia, Singapore,
South Korea and Taiwan unless it begins to revamp its training
program to create professional human resources and develop
competitive business and industry in the country," he said.

Latief said better training schemes are also necessary at
managerial levels because Indonesia still has to rely on
expatriates to fill some managerial posts.

"We need to `Indonesianize' these positions," he said.

The minister spelled out that in the next 15 years, Indonesia
needs at least 12 million professionals and 90 million semi-
skilled workers to take it through the industrialization process.
At present, Indonesia only has around 1.5 million professionals
and 49 million semi-skilled workers. (rms)