Jakarta, Sept 3 (Antara) - As a populous nation of about 240 million,
Indonesia has to prepare its human resources to face stiff competition
in a borderless labor market, particularly in the era of the ASEAN
Economic Community (AEC).
Although it is rich in human resources, Indonesia has yet to improve
their quality and equip them with competence-based certifications or
else, as a large county with rich natural resources, it will only become
a manpower market for other nations.
Even educated workers will face tough competition, let alone if the
education system fails to be at par with the skills required in the job
market. Indonesia continues to churn out new workforce, including those
with adequately high education degrees.
Yet, the question arises whether the country's human resources are now
able to face competition in the global market, or at least in the AEC,
which will come into effect at the end of 2015.
Economic analyst Aviliani of the Institute for Development of Economics
and Finance (Indef) expressed concern whether Indonesian workers will
now be able to face the borderless manpower market in the era of global
competition.
She
pointed out that Indonesia can encounter a problem when it produces
large numbers of educated workforce, but their skills fail to match the
market requirements. This can lead to foreign expatriates grabbing work
opportunities in the country.
Aviliani, therefore, feared that by the year 2020, highly educated Indonesian workers might remain unemployed.
"If the government fails to anticipate this, Indonesia will be flooded
by its own educated unemployed workforce in 2020," Aviliani noted in
Jakarta on Monday.
According to her, the current and next governments must immediately
tackle the problem of increasing unemployment among the educated people.
Indonesia can no longer afford to remain cut off from the globalized
world, especially when the AEC is implemented next year.
After all, new workforce continues to emerge. Aviliani has forecast
that Indonesia's workforce in 2014 will increase to 119.91 million
people from 118.19 million in 2013.
According to the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS), as of August 2013,
the workforce in Indonesia was 118.19 million people, out of which 7.39
million were unemployed.
The skillset of workers is also low. Data released by the BPS showed
that the composition of Indonesian workers, 52 million of them or 46.95
percent, only had elementary school education.
The BPS data also revealed that Indonesia's unemployment rate was still
high, with the rate rising to 6.25 percent in August 2013, from 5.92
percent in February 2013 and 6.14 percent in August 2012.
In this regard, the International Labor Organization (ILO) noted that
Indonesia needs to optimize the benefits it reaps from the labor market
in AEC, such as increase employment, wages, and productivity.
According to a new study launched by the ILO and the Asian Development
Bank (ADB), the introduction of AEC in 2015 can generate 14 million
additional jobs and improve the livelihood of 600 million people living
in the region.
Antara quoted the ILO Assistant Director General and Regional Director
for Asia and the Pacific Yoshiteru Uramoto as saying that the member
states will be able to garner the benefits only if decisive action is
taken to manage it effectively, such as developing policies and
institutions that will support inclusive and fair development.
The ILO and ADB also reported that under the AEC, the demand for highly
skilled workers will also increase, and by 2015, high-skill jobs are
projected to grow 41 percent or 14 million jobs will be available for
the people in member states.
However, the report predicts that skill shortages and mismatches are
likely to worsen due to inadequate availability and quality of education
and training.
According to ADB Director of Regional Economic Integration Arjun
Goswami, the ASEAN member states should consider developing closer links
between education and the labor market in order to improve the number
of skilled workers.
"Investment in labor productivity is critically important for the sustained development of ASEAN," Goswami stated.
Therefore, Aviliani has proposed that the Indonesian government should
improve the quality of graduates passing out from institutions offering
higher education. Graduates need to be equipped with appropriate
certifications, so that they will be able to compete in various places,
including abroad.
"Indonesian workers should have the required certifications, so that
they will be able to work in various places, including overseas," noted
the Indef economic analyst.
He affirmed that currently, about 95 percent of Indonesian workers have
not yet been certified, which has narrowed down their employment
opportunities, and they are only able to get work in the local or
domestic labor market. In less than a decade, Indonesia will be flooded
with its own new workforce passing out of its institutions having varied
levels of education.
Last May, the National Profession Certification Agency (BNSP) also
expressed the need for Indonesia to increase the competence of its
manpower in the face of the AEC, which will come into effect from 2015.
"It should be done now. The new government must include it in the first
100 days of its working program," Sumarna F. Abdurahman, the BNSP
deputy chairman, stated while referring to the government that will
change in October after this year's legislative and presidential
elections.
He pointed out that Indonesia's education system, which was not yet
competence-based, posed a problem in the employment sector. Meanwhile,
each industrial sector does not as yet have a manpower competence
certification agency.
"In the ASEAN, school certificates are not used as a consideration for
employment, but competence certificates are," he emphasized.
Indonesia has, in fact, implemented several professional certification
programs. In its middle-term development plan (2009-2014), a total of
2.5 million people were certified but 80 percent of them were Indonesian
migrant workers.
Aviliani stressed that if Indonesian workers had no competence-based
certifications then Indonesia will only serve as the main market for
foreign expatriates. Our workers will only be able to seek jobs at home
and have to compete with their fellow countrymen and with those coming
from other countries.
She,
therefore, highlighted the need for the Education Ministry to provide
workers with training and competence-based certifications. So far,
certification trainings have been provided by the Ministry of Manpower
and Transmigration, not the Ministry of Education.
"The
Directorate General of Manpower should be under the Ministry of
Education, so that it will be in line with the national education
system. Competence-based certifications should be awarded to the
workforce when they graduate from schools. In the absence of ongoing
appropriate education, the unemployment issue will continue to pose a
problem both for middle- and long-term development," Aviliani remarked.
***3***
(T.A014/INE/B003)
EDITED BY INE
(T.A014/A/BESSR/Bustanuddin) 03-09-2014 19:3 |
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar