Providing professional human resources development
Providing professional human resources development
During the past decade, Northeastern University (NEU), Boston,
Massachusetts, U.S., in cooperation with Indonesia, conducted 21
semiannual consultations in Indonesia on the advantages of work-
integrated-learning, or cooperative education (co-op). Applying
the co-op concept enables employers to attract, train and retain
preprofessional candidates for productive assignments. It has
been widely discussed with officials and executives from various
Indonesian ministries, the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and
Industry, American Chamber of Commerce (Indonesia), American
Embassy (Jakarta), and American-Indonesian Chamber of Commerce
(New York).
Positive results include many pilot programs and placements of
Indonesian undergraduate and graduate students, privately and
government sponsored, as preprofessionals, in the U.S. and
Indonesia through the NEU/Open Referral System: Indonesia-
U.S./Global Home Country Co-op & Full-time Placement Program. As
of July, 1998, it has been based at NEU, and includes 1,875
Indonesian candidates enrolled in 84 academic majors at 282 U.S.
institutions. The program is open to any full-time Indonesian
student who has a good grade-point average and is prequalified by
the NEU program office.
In 1987, NEU implemented a pilot co-op program with the Agency
for Strategic Industries and PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia. The
U.S. Agency for International Development, Washington, D.C.,
recognized the added value of the co-op program in developing
human resources in Indonesia and provided a three-year contract
to NEU from 1991 to 1994 through the APEC Partnership for
Education Program. Indonesia's successful model was expanded to
within ASEAN. Since 1995, the co-op program has coordinated
annual placements with more than 300 Indonesian students.
From 1989 through June 1998, nearly 1,200 Indonesian students
have been placed with almost 400 companies, including ABB, Aetna
Life Insurance, American Express, Arthur Andersen, AT&T,
Citibank, N.A., Freeport Indonesia, GE, General Motors, Hyatt
Hotels, IBM, Indosat, 3M, Mobil Oil, Nestle and Siemens.
When Link and Match was announced by the Ministry of Education
and Culture as the new national strategy based on the concept of
cooperative education, the 1st Indonesian National Executive
Conference on Cooperative Education was held at the new Agency
for the Assessment and Application of Technology building,
Jakarta, April 21, 1994. Subsequently, from 1993 to 1996, in
association with NEU as technical advisor, a planning unit was
established at the National Development Planning Board to conduct
a workshop in six cities with representatives from 25 higher
learning institutions and 140 businesses.
In order to sustain the national co-op program and the
international co-op program, a new independent community
association was formed during September 1997: The Council for the
Development of Partnership Programs between Higher Learning
Institutions and the Business Community. Indonesia is a member of
the World Association for Cooperative Education.
Contact the Indonesian National Co-op Program at fax number
(021) 3160691, or the Indonesian-U.S. Co-op & Full-time Placement
Program at e-mail lzion@lynx.dac.neu.edu for further information.
(Prof. L. Zion)
Prof. Leonard Zion is program director of Cooperative and
International Education, Northeastern University, Boston and
initiated the NEU relationship with Indonesia in December 1987.