Skilled workers help improve RI's image

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.