President Jokowi Tells Pre-Employment Card Recipients to Never Stop Learning

President Jokowi talks with Pre-Employment Card Program recipients at the State Palace, Jakarta, Wednesday (17/3). (Photo by: Public Relations of Cabinet Secretariat/Oji)

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo urged Pre-Employment Card Program recipients to further upgrade their skills.

Data from the National Labor Force Survey (Sakernas) in August 2020 issued by Statistics Indonesia (BPS) shows that 88.9% of Pre-Employment Card Program recipients stated that the program has upgraded their job skills.

“This is what we hope for. In this age of competition, if we don’t upgrade our skills daily, we will lose. Suddenly, we lost our jobs,” the President said during his remarks to the Pre-Employment Card Program recipients, at the State Palace, Jakarta, Wednesday (17/3).

Skills upgrading is especially needed in a rapidly changing era. To that end, the President advised the recipients of the Pre-Employment Cards Programs to further strive to boost their abilities and skills.

“Don’t stop learning, don’t stop improving skills. Do improve our skills because it’s our race against changes,” he said.

Since its launch in April 2020 until the 14th batch, the Pre-Employment Cards Program has received great demand from the Indonesian workforce, but only a few have had the opportunity to receive the training.

“Earlier, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs said that there are approximately 55 million (people) registered for this program, but only 5.6 million (people) could participate in 2020, and this year only 1.8 million people. Not all of them have been accommodated,” the President said.

Furthermore, President Jokowi said, approximately 1,700 trainings have been prepared by 165 provider institutions. Participants of the program are given the freedom to choose training according to their interests and talents.

Based on the data, these are the five most in-demand training programs, namely online marketing, food and beverage, information technology, especially websites, offices, and entrepreneurship. The President assessed that these training programs were vital in the working world and business world.

“I started my business from scratch and it started from joining training programs. In today’s digital age, you can learn much faster online,” he said, adding that job and business opportunities will increase with an improvement in skills and knowledge.

“I hope that the [Pre-Employment Card program] will later become a model for us in improving our skills. This is a great opportunity and we hope to open as many job opportunities as possible. And if in the future, many can join the business world and the working world, I think, our economy will improve,” he said. (DND/UN) (FI/MUR)