RI, Germany plan training project

RI, Germany plan training project

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia and Germany are considering possible
cooperation on a training project designed to meet the demand for
skills required in local industries.

The project, the Indonesian-German Institute (IGI), would be a
cooperation between the National Development Planning Board
(Bappenas) and the government-owned German Technical Cooperation
Agency (GTZ).

The teaching methods under consideration are based on the
concept of a job and project oriented learning process in a
curriculum set out according to company demands.

Gunawan Sumodiningrat, the deputy for economic affairs at
Bappenas, said the project had first been discussed in 1995, well
before the economic crisis.

When asked if the project would give priority to those who had
recently lost their jobs, A. Machrany, the Bappenas official in
charge of the program, said that would be determined at later
date.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) predicted earlier
this month that 5.4 million people would lose their jobs by the
end of the year.

Gunawan said the project had no plans to subsidize people with
capital, but that training should be thought off as an "indirect
subsidy to human resources."

The project was introduced in a workshop entitled Strategic
Human Resources Development, Industrialization and the Future
Needs of Small and Medium Enterprises. The workshop opened on
Tuesday and runs until Friday.

The teaching methods promote a mixture of theory and practical
experience by working on company-related projects in an emulated
company or factory environment, according to Norbert Meyer from
the German Occupational Promotion Center.

Machrany said the German government planned to fund the
project with a soft loan of 25 million Deutschemarks (US$14.5
million).

The Indonesian government is obliged to provide the project
with the necessary land and buildings, which Machrany said would
most likely be in Serpong, West Java. Serpong is home to the
Center for Technology Research, an institute under the State
Ministry of Research and Technology.

However, GTZ program director Manfred Diehl said in his
opening address that ongoing negotiations would determine whether
or not the project was eventually implemented.

Diehl also said the workshop would include discussion of
whether the concept of the project was applicable to the context
of Indonesian industrialization, "and the needs and requirements
of companies in Indonesia." (01)