Minister Urges Improvement in Indonesian Workers' Professional Competence Certification

Yogyakarta, InfoPublik - Indonesia's Manpower Ministry has a strategy to lower the number of foreign workers in Indonesia by improving the competence of Indonesian workers through the professional certification.

This statement was given by Manpower Minister Muhammad Hanif Dhakiri during his speech at Pertamina International Learning Conference Gala Dinner in Yogyakarta on Wednesday (18/1). "The certification of competence can be used as an instrument to reduce the number of foreign workers in Indonesia," said the minister.

According to him, in order for the strategy to run effectively, human resource development target must not focus merely on quantity which is poor in quality and identity. The minister also expected human resource development to be focused on competitiveness.

“The development of human resources through education or vocational training should not only pursue quantitative targets that is poor in quality and identity but rather focused on competitiveness,” said Hanif.

In addition, he continued, in order to create competitive Indonesian human resources, competency standards that are recognized both nationally and internationally must be put in place.

"To meet the demand of the industry both in the domestic and global levels, we need a competency standard that is recognized nationally and internationally. This will eventually enable Indonesian workers to compete with foreign labor," he explained.

However, Minister Hanif reminded us that the government could not do it alone. He invited cooperation from the corporates. "This strategy will not be effective if the Government acts alone. The role of industry is needed to implement this strategy," he said.

At the end of his speech, the minister expressed his appreciation to PT Pertamina, which has been supporting the Government's efforts in the development of Indonesian human resources by launching Pertamina Professional Certification Institute in 2016.

“I would like to express our sincere appreciation to PT Pertamina for launching Pertamina Professional Certification Agency (LSP Pertamina). The agency has generated hundreds competence certification for professionals in the energy industry,” he said. (Siti Chodijah)