UNS — With the Coordinating Minister for the Economy RI, Airlangga Hartarto, the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta held a discussion on Pre-employment Card (Kartu Prakerja). The event was held online through the Zoom Cloud Meeting application and live-streamed in FEB UNS and Ministry of Economy RI YouTube channel on Friday (18/6/2021). The event aims to improve community literacy on the Pre-employment Program.
Kartu Prakerja is a program initiated by Jokowi in 2019 to encourage the development of competence, productivity, and competitiveness of Indonesian workforces. This idea was implemented through Presidential Decree No. 36 of 2020 and the Decree of the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy No. 3 of 2020, and Minister of Finance Decree No. 25 of 2020.
As an academician, the Rector of UNS, Prof. Jamal Wiwoho, stated that Prakerja Program is a solution for Indonesia to face the demography bonus until 2030. Especially regarding the low productivity of the Indonesian workforce who have never experienced certification training. However, the pandemic has affected the initial plan for the program. The Vice-Rector for Academic and Student Affairs UNS, Prof. Ahmad Yunus, mentioned that the program has successfully maintained community purchasing power. “Therefore, innovation and smart work were taken by the Prakerja Program management to realize this program,” Prof. Yunus said.
Prof. Jamal also suggested that the program could improve the Indonesian workforce’s skills, especially amid the disruption era and the pandemic, for example, through the improvement of digital skills. “It is vital that the implementation of the Kartu Prakerja Program is adjusted to the current development,” Prof. Jamal suggested. This adjustment, Prof. Jamal added, will bring a positive contribution to the Indonesian economic recovery post-Covid-19 pandemic.
The Coordinating Minister for the Economy RI, Airlangga Hartarto, appreciated UNS for initiating the discussion. He thinks the discussion is vital to gather suggestions in formulating policy and controlling the program in Good Governance Prakerja and believed that a policy and program should adapt to the social context of the community. “If it is separated from the context, I am sure that the policy and program will be less meaningful,” he emphasized.
The first batch of Kartu Prakerja was launched on 11 April 2020 with a total quota of 200,000 people and a semi-social relief scheme. The scheme was selected considering the high number of these benefit recipients (8.3 million people) who were affected by Covid-19. “To this day, as many as 8,3 people have benefited from Kartu Prakerja,” Airlangga said. These benefit recipients come from 514 districts/cities in Indonesia. The Minister added that the recipients are people with disabilities, ex-migrant workers, elementary school graduates, people laid off from their job, employees, and entrepreneurs.
Airlanga also stated that end-to-end digital is selected to reach the wider community rapidly and accurately. The method also minimizes the health risk for the community amid the pandemic. “The young generations all over Indonesia could learn everything, coding, audio mixing, backing, marketing, foreign language, and copywriting,” he added. To provide this training, Prakerja Program collaborates with 179 training centers that offer more than 1,591 trainings delivered through seven digital platforms to promote comparability among courses.
Continuous evaluation is conducted for the program, and in February 2021, the Indonesian Statistics survey showed that 90.97% of Prakerja participants reported improved skills. A similar result was observed in the survey conducted by TNP2K, Cyrus Network, and PMO. Even Airlangga also said that Prakerja management is building new collaboration with four research centers to measure the program’s impact.
Concluding his speech, Airlangga invited university students and the community to participate in monitoring Prakerja. “As an innovation, Prakerja faces many challenges and has a wide opportunity for growth. In this effort, I invited all UNS academic members to take a role in this program,” he concluded. Humas UNS
Reporter: Alinda Hardiantoro
Editor: Dwi Hastuti