Directives of President of the Republic of Indonesia to the 2020-2021 Pre-Employment Card Recipients, 17 March 2021, at the State Palace, Jakarta

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.
Assalamu’alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.

Good afternoon,

Peace and prosperity be upon us all,

Om Swastiastu,

Namo Buddhaya,

Greetings of Virtue.

Honorable Ministers, Heads of Institutions,

Managing Executive Director of Pre-Employment Card Program, and the 2020-2021 recipients of the program.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am elated to meet you, the Pre-Employment Card participants. Earlier, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs said that approximately 55 million people registered for this Pre-Employment Card Program, but only 5.6 million of whom could join the program in 2020, and this year only 1.8 million. This means that the public is enthusiastic about the program. What does it mean? Not all of them have been accommodated.

And, there are approximately 1,700 trainings prepared by 165 provider institutions. It is a substantial number. Then, participants of the program are given the freedom to choose training according to their interests and talents. Later, I asked Managing Executive Director of Pre-Employment Card Program Bu Denni regarding the most in-demand training programs? What are the most sought-after training programs? The top five are:

First, online marketing. It is very important now. This is much needed. Online marketing is the number one. There are so many enthusiasts and the market really wants it. Offices, banking, the industry, all want it. Those who want to be entrepreneurs also want it because it is now indeed a digital age.

Second, food and beverage. Food and beverage-related programs are also the most wanted. In the future, this is also promising, both for entrepreneurship and work. Because in the future, the most promising thing is in the food sector, the second is energy. Now, this food and beverage go into the food sector. So, matters related to food and beverage are also in great demand.

Third, it has to do with information technology (IT), more specifically web programs. It is the third most favorite.

Fourth, it is very much needed in the working world, that is, office affairs. There is a lot of interest in the training programs related to office affairs because the market, industry, offices need them.

Fifth, related to entrepreneurship, because many of our youth are starting to want to enter the business world. I think this kind of training is really needed. I started my business from scratch and it started from joining training programs. In the past, a week is needed for a training. In today’s digital age, you can learn much faster online.

What does the survey tell us? Their skills have improved by 88%. This is what we aim for. In this age of competition, if we don’t upgrade our skills daily, we will lose. Suddenly, we lost our jobs. How did it happen? It was because of our skills. Many have improved their skills while some have not. This is what I need to remind you. We are now in the age where the speed of change occurs very quickly and you must be able to follow it. If you can’t follow the changes then you will feel like “My friends have made massive progress and why are we still here.” Because they have honed their skills, improved their skills, and we did not. Other training programs I mentioned earlier are probably just as vital for work and business world.

Therefore, this afternoon I would like to hear the leap of progress thanks to this Pre-Employment Card Program. This program is actually for everyone, anyone is allowed to take part: those who graduated from Senior High School/Vocational High School, those who graduated from college are also welcome, those who drop out of schools are also welcome, those who are laid off are welcome, but the priority now is preferably those affected by termination of employment. But actually this is for anyone.

And, today I am very interested in the story from one participant from Manado. Is the person here or joining the event virtually? Oh, you are here, Mr. Stevenly, is that right? You used to be a security guard and then got laid off and now you are a supervisor, right? And you took training programs for graphic design and product marketing through social media. Tell me about how you got laid off and then joined the Pre-employment Card Program, the registering process, is it difficult or not? How was the training process? How did you get to be a supervisor?

*Dialog*

I think the examples given earlier are very impressive. And, also I hope that these examples will become an inspiration for us to improve our skills. And, maybe later once the pandemic ends, there will be many online and offline training programs. There will be many face-to-face and virtual training programs. I think the combination of both can also be worked on, it will also improve the skills even more.

Because at some point, once the situation returns to normal and the pandemic is resolved, we will have more opportunities, both job opportunities and business opportunities. And once the economy returns to normal or improves, that is actually the opportunity for all of you because you have upgraded your skills, you have improved your skills.

I think this is a great opportunity. We hope to open up as many employments as possible. And if in the future many will enter the business world, many will enter the working world, I think our economy will improve.

That concludes my directives on this auspicious opportunity. I would like to express my deep gratitude for your presence, ladies and gentlemen, as well as inspiring stories you share earlier so that you can encourage and motivate others to also participate in this Pre-Employment Card program.

I thank you.

Wassalamu’alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.