Government is to prioritize the development of human resources quality and competence of the 116 million workforce, given the quality and competence of human resources that are still low compared to those in other countries. Evidently, the workforce is still dominated by those who passed primary schools or lower schools which is 57.44 million or 49.52% of the total workforce. Additionally, Indonesia’s competitiveness ranking remains in number 42 of 131 countries and the human development index ranks 111th of 192 countries.
This was conveyed by Minister of Manpower and Transmigration, Muhaimin Iskandar, M. Si, in a public lecture during the New Students Success Learning Training in UGM Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, at the Cultural Center Building Koesnadi Hardjasoemantri on Thursday (19/8). The public lecture hosted by the Dean, Prof. Dr. Pratikno, has raised the topic of "Manpower and Transmigration."
Cak Imin, as the Minister is familiarly called, said the number of workforce in urban areas is currently increasing. The fact is that the condition of facilities and infrastructure of Regional Technical Executive Unit of Job Training School in most of the areas is not functioning optimally, while the number of unemployment has now reached 8.59 million (7.41%) and underemployment 35.42 million (30.54%) of the total workforce.
According to Cak Imin, employment opportunities are at the core of all policies and programs. Therefore, job training is an effort to improve skills and productivity and labor competitiveness. "The Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration prioritizes the expansion of the employment opportunities creation, the management of a conducive working environment through harmonious industrial relations," said this graduate of Sociatry UGM.
Answering students’ questions related to different wage standards in each area, Cak Imin conveyed that the regulation is based on the economic progress level of each region that is different from one another. Nevertheless, he still agreed that the prevailing wage standard is still far behind the figure overseas.
Mentioned about the transmigration, Cak Imin conveyed that the public interest to join the transmigration is still very large, which is 260 thousand families. In the meantime, the transmigration quota is only 46,053 families per 5 years. "Thus, the utilization of potential areas of 901,405 ha for transmigration is still not optimal," he added.