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Beneficiaries show their pre-employment card after meeting with the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto in Jakarta, Tuesday (15/12/2020). ANTARA PHOTOS / Aditya Pradana Putra / aww.

Vice President Ma'ruf Amin spoke of the government’s plan to continue the pre-employment card program until at least 2022 to improve the quality of Human Resources (HR) amid global competition after the COVID-19 pandemic.

"God willing, in 2022, we can also budget for this program, as our workforce increases every year and post-epidemic job demands call for better human resources and more skills," Vice President Amin stated during an online economic dialog quoted in Jakarta, Friday.

The pre-employment card is a form of the government’s assistance to the community to enable them to transform with the inculcation of various changes in the world of work, he affirmed.

"This is because it is impossible or uncertain for them to conduct transformation on their own. The government is offering help by continuing to conduct training programs through this pre-employment card program," the vice president stated.

Amin explained that the government had incessantly worked to improve the work system for the pre-employment card program that was halted on the recommendation of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK)."In 2020, the pre-employment card is budgeted worth Rp20 trillion for 5.48 million people. In 2021, it was originally budgeted for only Rp10 trillion but was later increased to Rp20 trillion. That was indeed stopped on the recommendation of the KPK, but then improvements were made," he remarked.

The pre-employment card program is a training assistance scheme accompanied by providing incentives to the community.

The assistance and incentives are intended for citizens, aged at least 18 years, and are job seekers, new graduates, victims of termination of employment, and entrepreneurs.

Each participant will receive assistance worth Rp3,550,000, with Rp1,000,000 for training, post-training monthly incentive of Rp600,000 for four months, and Rp150,000 as survey incentive.

Currently, the management involved in the implementation of the pre-employment card program will begin accepting participants for batch 13, with a quota of 600,000 people.The process of accepting participants for batch 13 will start after the announcement of the results of selection for batch 12//ANT