By: Ganis Parahita) *
Human resource (HR) development is now a priority for the Government of Indonesia’s development in the next few years. Various educational programs to improve the quality of human resources continue to be developed in order to improve the competitiveness of the nation.
President Joko Widodo has stated the importance of vocational schools in producing reliable, skilled and ready-to-work human resources (HR) to face increasingly complex future challenges.
Andreas Pereira, as a member of the House of Representatives Commission X considered that the steps taken by Jokowi were appropriate to face global competition.
According to him, Indonesian human resources must be competitive and productive in the world of work, one of which is through improving the quality of vocational education. So that it is expected to encourage Indonesia to move out of the middle income trap country into a developed country.
When it comes to national productivity, one of the steps is vocational education. Andreas said, vocational education will produce skilled and innovative workforce that is ready to work.
Moreover, Indonesia will experience demographic bonuses later. Where the millennial generation of working age in Indonesia almost touches 40 percent of the population.
This means that young people must be prepared to become productive workers. If not, it is likely that there will be large unemployment that can cause social disasters for Indonesia.
Public policy expert from Trisakti University, Trubus Rahadian said, Jokowi wanted Indonesia to have human resources, especially competitive young people, in order to enter the era of industrial revolution 4.0 and society 4.0.
Therefore HR development emphasizes more on the professional, innovation aspects, vocational aspects and network aspects as well as capacity building because all of them will lead to the vision of Indonesia Emas 2045.
Trubus said, what was done by the former Governor of DKI Jakarta was actually not a new thing related to HR development. However, according to him, what was said by Jokowi was trying to be more practical.
For example, someone is given training or workshops, adding skills to one of the elements by launching 3 magic cards where the Pre-Employment card is one of them.
Trubus assessed that the Pre-Employment Card is expected to provide fresh graduate job seekers with provision to get a job by adding skills through training education and others.
With the increase in the quality of human resources, it is expected to have a positive impact on the welfare and competitiveness of the nation against global competition.
The development of community quality is a big capital and has a direct impact on all aspects of life in this country.
Senior politician Akbar Tanjung said that improving the quality of human resources in the first Jokowi era government needed to be continued and strengthened /
Of course these steps must touch all levels of society so that the impact is greater on the quality of Indonesian society. Akbar Tanjung believes that the nation’s economic growth can be more than 5 percent as in previous years.
Akbar Tanjung also did not dismiss, that the welfare of the community can be realized more quickly when it has many human resources who master technological advances.
Concretely, HR is the key to the welfare and progress of the nation, so improving the quality of HR must be a development priority.
Previously Jokowi gave an example, farmers need to be introduced to the e-commerce marketplace to market their products online. So that the relationship between farmers and consumers is getting closer.
Later, farmers are expected to not only depend on middlemen, but farmers also have the ability to sell their products directly, by cutting out middlemen and selling them directly to end users, it is hoped that farmers can get more profit.
Jokowi had said that many graduates today are less absorbed by the industrial world because they are considered irrelevant to their needs. Until finally, the Industry lacks competent human resources in accordance with the required qualifications.
Therefore, Jokowi has a program to improve human resources with a variety of training, so that later the young generation has the expertise needed by employers and industry.
Improving the quality of human resources is certainly an important capital to face the era of digital-based economy. Therefore, various HR development programs must be prepared to ensure that demographic bonuses become progress leaps rather than threatening bonuses.
Indonesia certainly has the initial capital to face competition at the global level, namely the number of population which is number 4 in the world and most of the population of Indonesia is still young and productive.
) * The author is a social political observer