Gov’t Inaugurates 23rd Batch of Pre-Employment Card Program for 500 Thousand Beneficiaries
Pre-employment card (Source: prakerja.go.id)
The Government has announced that it continued the pre-employment card program. The Job Creation Committee has agreed that in this year’s first semester, the pre-employment card program is semi-social assistance.
For the record, the Pre-employment Card Program is a program for training cost assistance to develop competence, productivity, competitiveness, and entrepreneurship skills of workforce in Indonesia through an ecosystem built under multi-party partnerships. There are currently 6 digital platforms, 181 training institutions providing 596 trainings, 5 payment partners, 8 educational institutions, 4 interconnected job platforms, as well as 8 ministries/agencies and 17 local governments that help providing data.
“By saying bismillahirrahmanirrahim, today I officially inaugurate the 23rd Batch of the Pre-Employment Card Program. This 23rd batch is open for 500 thousand beneficiaries. The next batch will be open for the same quota (500 thousand beneficiaries),” Coordinating Minister of Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto who also helms the Job Creation Committee said in Jakarta, Thursday (02/17).
This year’s pre-employment card program, Airlangga continued, will prioritize on additional allocation for 212 regencies/cities with extreme poverty rate. It is expected that the assistance can boost local economic empowerment to escape extreme poverty.
Moreover, the program will also provide special allocation for 50 thousand of Indonesian Migrant Worker Candidates.
By joining the program, Airlangga added, the beneficiaries can prove that they have skillful competencies needed for the job.
Furthermore, the Pre-employment Card Program will also encourage the supply and demand of employees to be connected under the program system. With the use of digital technology, pre-employment card has transformed public services and created people’s new habits to always be eager to learn.
“After completing the training, you can optimize the feature “job recommendation” to find suitable jobs based on your competencies and trainings you have finished. All beneficiaries can optimize the feature by attaching pre-employment training certificates to apply for the job,” the Coordinating Minister said.
For two years, the Pre-Employment Card Program has brought positive impacts on encouraging financial resilience and inclusion, especially for communities affected by COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the report from The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) Southeast Asia and Rumah Presisi Indonesia on the impact of the program showed that the Pre-employment Card Program has positive impacts on improving competence, productivity, employment, entrepreneurship, and income of its beneficiaries.
“If the Pre-Employment Card Program is presented as a successful example of the Government programs that is in accordance with the theme of the Indonesian G20 Presidency, the program can be a pilot program for other developing countries,” Airlangga said.
Those achievements show that the Pre-employment Card Program has successfully carried out its dual missions during the COVID-19 pandemic, which are to improve people’s skills and maintain people’s purchasing power. The full package of pre-employment card including training and incentives is an innovation of the Government programs in responding to the effect of pandemic quickly and positively, helping those who lost their jobs, and responding to the present challenge namely digital disruption.
Since the first batch of the Pre-Employment Card Program on April 11, 2020, the number of beneficiaries has reached about 11.4 million in 22 batches. As many as 87 percent of beneficiaries has never attended job training before, so attending job training by this program is their first training experience.
“I express my hope that all 11.4 million alumni of the Pre-Employment Card Program to broaden your knowledge, implement the knowledge you have learned, and improve your attitude to become successful workers or entrepreneurs. The Government also provides the Microcredit (KUR) Program for MSMEs. One of the requirements of MSMEs financing is “know your customer (KYC)”, and if the seller has additional skills, competencies certification from the Pre-employment Card, it will increase credibility of the seller,” he remarked. (PR of Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affairs/UN) (AP/MUR)
