Skilled workers help improve RI's image

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta

In the eyes of most countries, Indonesia is a poor country that is capable of supplying only unskilled and uneducated migrant workers to richer and more developed countries, but labor exporter Saleh Alwaini is determined to prove that this impression is misplaced.

His holding company, the Binawan Corporation, is set to supply 400 professional healthcare workers on an annual basis to Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, the United States, Australia and the Middle Eastern countries.

The first group, comprised of the maiden graduates of the Binawan Institute of Health Sciences, which started operation in 2001, will depart to their destination countries by the end of this year.

With their international certificates in various health disciplines, the workers will be employed in hospitals based on international standard contracts and salaries.

"For the first two years, a worker will receive a gross salary of US$2,000 per month. Her salary will then rise in accordance with her work experience and bargaining power," Binawan Holding Group president Saleh Alwaini told The Jakarta Post after seeing off some of the institute's lecturers on to Sydney, Australia, on Thursday, where they will participate in postgraduate and PhD programs.

Saleh has focused on sending professional healthcare workers abroad because besides being more lucrative, he believes his business will improve the image of Indonesian workers overseas.

"Sending skilled and educated workers overseas is more profitable, more prestigious and less risky, and this program will certainly improve the well-being and status of the workers, as well as our country's image," he said.

He said, for example, that professional healthcare workers would be paid between US$2,000 and $3,000 per month, depending on the country in which they were employed. Their accommodation would also be provided. This was in marked contrast to most Indonesian migrant workers, including house maids employed in the informal sector, who get paid an average of $150 per month, often have their wages withheld, and frequently have to work up to ten or more hours per day, seven days per week.

He said that the poor treatment meted out to some Indonesian workers overseas had a lot to do with a lack of skills, education and training on the part of them.

"In this era of globalization, workers need to be self-reliant so that they can protect themselves and deal with any difficulties they experience with foreign employers and agencies," he noted.

Since 1992, Binawan has sent a total of 1,900 healthcare professionals abroad, with most being recruited from nursing schools in Java and Sumatra and given six months training to meet international requirements. However, the program had to be halted as "besides being inefficient, the quality of the workers was below international standards and, therefore, we decided to set up our own academy to produce skilled workers that satisfy international standards."

Saleh, who has been in the labor export business since the 1980s, said he hoped this would inspire other labor exporters to set up their own international-standard vocational schools and training centers to produce skilled and self-reliant workers.

"I would be very proud if labor exporters, with or without government support, established international-standard vocational and training centers to produce skilled workers. The demand for these workers on the international labor market is on the rise," he said enthusiastically.

He added that the Binawan Institute of Health Sciences and other international academies in other countries would not be able to meet the global demand for migrant healthcare workers. "The world demand for these workers has increased to 900,000 this year from around 650,000 last year as most people in the rich and developed countries don't want to work in the health sector," he said.

Side-bar story:

Binawan Institute produces qualified healthcare workers

Inspired by the increasing demand for qualified healthcare workers abroad, labor exporter, the Binawan Holding Group has established an international standard health sciences academy in Jakarta to train nurses and other healthcare workers for employment overseas.

Saleh Alwaini, the chairman of the Binawan Foundation, which runs the Binawan Institute of Health Sciences in Kalibata, East Jakarta, said the institute offered undergraduate and postgraduate programs in the health sciences -- nursing, physiotherapy, radiography, chemistry analysis and occupational therapy -- and had been in existence for more than three years. He said the institute applied an international curriculum and had many teaching staff from Australia and the United States.

"The institute opened in 2000, and is to set to have its first graduation ceremony in a couple of months. All of the graduates will take up immediate employment for two years in Britain, the Netherlands, Canada, the United States, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, with gross monthly salaries of US$2,500," he said, adding that more than 400 graduates would be conferred during the first graduation ceremony.

The institute has two luxurious campuses located in Kalibata, East Jakarta, and Cianjur, West Java, respectively.

Saleh declined to mention the amount of money his company had invested in the project, but admitted that the foundation running the academy had received financial aid or loans from a number of foreign donors, local banks and the holding group.

He said the academy had to turn away many applicants due to the great demand for places.

"Around 20,000 senior high school graduates have applied to the academy over the last four years, but our capacity is only 400 per year," he said.

He explained that the massive interest in the academy was partly due to the fact the some of the tuition fees could be paid after the graduates started working abroad, and student accommodation was included in the cost.

A student taking the bachelor of nursing program is required to pay Rp 12 million for the first one-and-a-half years, while the remaining Rp 24 million for the second three-and-a-half years may be paid off by installment during the course of her two-year employment contract overseas.

He said that as well as sending teaching staff to participate in postgraduate and PhD programs overseas, more classrooms and other facilities were being provided to enable the institute to admit more students in 2005/2006.