VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Minister of Manpower Ida Fauziyah in her office, Monday, July 13, 2020. (ANTARA/kemnaker.go.id/pri)

Minister of Manpower, Ida Fauziyah, on Tuesday underlined the need for more vocational training to build a skilled workforce and strengthen Indonesia's human resources (HR) to help the country benefit from the demographic bonus.

"Indonesia has entered a period of demographic bonus which will peak in 2030, with the (proportion of) population in the productive age (group) more than that in the unproductive age (group),” Ida Fauziyah said in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The minister stressed that the period of demographic bonus is a golden opportunity that needs to be utilized properly through human capital development.

At the moment, the minister noted, even though Indonesia has the largest population in ASEAN, it still lags in terms of development of HR capabilities compared to other countries in the region.

The main challenge Indonesian faces in the employment sector is that the majority of its workers have only had a high school education or less. About 56 percent of Indonesian workers are engaged in the informal sector. Meanwhile, workers aged 15-24 years, who are mostly high school or vocational school graduates, make up the largest number of the unemployed.

Low levels of ability would affect productivity and thereby, how well Indonesia utilizes its demographic bonus, Ida pointed out. Therefore, steps to build the nation’s human resource need to be taken so that the demographic bonus can aid national development, she explained.

One way to build human resource would be to strengthen vocational education and training programs, which are under the authority of the Ministry of Manpower, by revamping vocational training centers (BLK) owned by ministries and local governments.

The Ministry of Manpower has set up BLKs in 15 provinces and efforts are being made to expand their presence across Indonesia.

As part of this push, the Ministry of Manpower plans to add 1,000 more the community vocational training centers (BLK) this year, Ida said. (ANTARA)