There are currently around 900,000 unemployed university graduates in Indonesia,
Jakarta (ANTARA) – The Indonesian government has called on higher education institutions across the country to strengthen collaboration with businesses to help bridge the competency gap that continues to exist between universities and industry.
“One of our current challenges is the gap between higher education institutions and the realities of industry. In my view, this gap must be narrowed,” Minister of Manpower Yassierli said during the Annual Meeting of the Indonesian Association of Mathematics and Natural Sciences Teacher Education Institutions (AMLI) in Jakarta on Thursday.
According to the minister, the gap has directly affected the country’s ability to optimize workforce absorption, noting that hundreds of thousands of university graduates have yet to secure employment that fully utilizes their potential.
“There are currently around 900,000 unemployed university graduates in Indonesia. This is the reality we are facing,” he said.
Yassierli said that the main issue is not merely the availability of jobs but rather the phenomenon of skills mismatch, where graduates’ competencies do not align with labor market demands.
He noted that the mismatch often occurs when university graduates take jobs that are not fully aligned with their educational backgrounds or qualifications.
One of the major challenges facing universities, says the minister, is the lengthy administrative process required to update academic curricula, while changes in the industrial sector occur rapidly.
To support universities in preparing graduates for the workforce, the Ministry of Manpower has positioned itself as a proactive partner by providing “finishing” programs for graduates entering the labor market.
“What do we mean by finishing? If graduates still lack certain skills, we facilitate various skills training programs to help fill those gaps,” Yassierli said.
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Translator: Bayu Prasetyo
Editor: M Razi Rahman
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