RI lacks skilled workforce in the advertising industry

RI lacks skilled workforce in the advertising industry

JAKARTA (JP): Education has become the main focus of
government efforts in raising the quality of human resources in
this country. Soon after stepping into office, our present
Minister of Education and Culture, Prof. Wardiman Djojonegoro,
introduced the concept of "link and match" between educational
institutions and workplaces to ensure that graduates will be well
equipped with the right skills and therefore able to find
employment the moment they enter the workforce.

This is a pragmatic view on education, indeed. But the outcome
has yet to be seen.

Compared to many countries in the region, Indonesia is
unfortunately noted for the low quality of its human resources.
This is also true in the advertising sector.

In the advertising industry, a skilled workforce is felt to be
in gross shortage, despite the fact that more institutions of
higher learning are offering majors in advertising.

One of the problems, as Alfonso -- account director of Inter
Admark -- sees it, lies in the curricula. Although the
instructors are practitioners, they are bound by the guidelines
specified by the curricula. The best they can do is share their
personal experiences to supplement the theoretical discourses.
Most universities offer advertising courses only as a study
program.

Another problem with formal advertising education stems from
the limited pool of experts in the field that can teach the
courses in the discipline. At universities in and surrounding
Jakarta, for instance, it is still possible to ask practitioners
to give lecturers on advertising. Although the stipends may not
be very large, a lot of busy practitioners are still willing to
do this, partly to keep their relationship with the academic
world, and partly to do "talent scouting". While teaching, they
keep their eyes open for potential talents.

In Jakarta it is possible to borrow from the expertise of
advertising professionals and use them as teachers because most
major advertising agencies are headquartered in the capital.
Outside of the capital city, however, it becomes impossible to
borrow professionals to teach. Consequently no universities
outside of Jakarta offer advertising courses.

Major

At the University of Indonesia, advertising has been offered
as a major for sometime. Quite a few high school graduates try to
get into the program, and thus enrollment has been the largest
among the four majors within its School of Communication. A lot
of students believe that if they take up advertising they will
have no problem finding a job after graduation.

And they are right. According to Mr. Lukman, a lecturer at the
School of Communication of the University of Indonesia, many of
the fourth and fifth year students are already working for
agencies. Frequently, this interferes with their final
assignment, which is writing a thesis.

But, once they graduate, they have leverage. Not only do they
have a certificate from a leading university, they also have
gained pretty extensive experience working for an ad agency.

The situation is a little bit different when a graduate from
the department of graphic design is recruited.

Tri Sakti university has 1,500 students in its graphic design
course at the moment, while the Jakarta Art Institute, sue to a
lack of facilities, has only 25 students studying in this field.

Isa Nidal of Tri Sakti University says that quite a few of
that institution's students get part-time work in the sector well
before they graduate.

The difference between the advertising and design students is
sized up by Zainal. "Usually, it takes us three to four years to
feel confident enough to let these (design) graduates handle
responsibility," he said.

"Keep in mind that advertising is an expensive undertaking,
and therefore we cannot take too much risk in handling it."

But there are also design graduates who move forward at a
faster pace. These are the cream of the crop, who have strong
motivation and the drive to advance.

Alfonso supports this view. He also believes that it usually
takes three to four years for strongly motivated fresh university
design graduates to really comprehend the inner workings of the
advertising world. He went on by saying that, in the advertising
agencies, it may not make any difference what the university
background of the recruit is.

"We have graduates from the Bogor Agriculture Institute doing
marketing research in our research department," he said.

It seems that the reason they recruit university graduates
from other backgrounds is that they have proven that they have a
certain level of competence.

"No matter what their background is, we always have to give
them training before they can get involved in our projects,"
Alfonso added. (zia)