Digital Talent Scholarship is a government initiative by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology of the Republic of Indonesia. This year, we received great enthusiasm from the applicants. As a brand-new project, Digital Talent Scholarship has gained its prominence with 46.888 applications for only a month submission period. In 2018, we are committed to put 1000 certified graduates into the labor market, and next year we will raise the number to 20.000 certified graduates with total 150.000 scholarships available.

Indonesia—the fourth most populous country—is expected to enter the demographic divided which will make the working age group reach 70% of the total population by 2030. Yet, in recent years, Indonesia has recorded soaring rates of youth unemployment. Indonesia’s Central Bureau of Statistic currently announced that vocational high school graduates contribute a large proportion of 11,3% to the national open unemployment rate. The alarming data indicates that Indonesia’s education today is insufficiently equipped and the curricula provided do not match with skills demanded by employers.

This project aims to bridge skill mismatch and skill shortage problem that we have and we will be facing in the next 20 years. Digital Talent Scholarship acknowledges the missing part of today’s formal education: a high-demand subjects with an up-to-date teaching material. We grant scholarships to applicants with various backgrounds; there are bachelor graduates, vocational high-school graduates, teachers and lecturers, professionals, also civil servants and members of the national military/police. We fully understand that the nature of work is now reshaped with by technological changes, and is now time to put skills development and human capital first in order to secure Indonesia’s future economic development.

http://digitalent.kominfo.go.id

• Indonesia

• The unemployed
• the existing workforce

This project aims to address the looming problem in Indonesia, it has to be sustainable otherwise the country will face a serious shortage of skilled and semi-skilled workers of tens of millions in the coming decades. Indonesia now have considerable capital of talent, as there are many universities and vocational schools scattered even in the rural areas.

What we are going to do is encouraging the existing public educational institutions to provide compulsory subjects related to digitization like what we offer this year: big data analysis, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, cyber-security, and digital entrepreneurship.

We see this project could be a catalyst for other ministries and national agencies for adapting to the Industrial Revolution 4.0 immediately. The sustainability of this project is guaranteed as we develop a solid collaboration among actors. We have held dialogues that brought together educational institutions and the private actor. From there, a reliable ecosystem will emerge and will constitute the most up-to-date approach in developing curriculum/subjects at school.

Our objectives are having a common fround with WSIS values number 1. The role of governments and all stakeholders in the promotion of ICTs for development. We pledge to play our role and responsibility to be more of a facilitator—and less of a regulator. We want to start a joint effort that includes people and cooperation among all stakeholders. The project will provide knowledge lead to a new world where automation is not only understood as threat to labor market; but more of a means to improve our well-being. The goal mentioned is also aligned with the WSIS value number 7. ICT applications: benefits in all aspects of life; as we would like to slowly raise awareness of the shifting world to Industry 4.0 which entails the ability to adopt and integrate digital and physical technologies to improve operations, become more productive, grow, and innovative. This can represent a profound change for any organization and institution. We aspire to utilize technology to empower people; provide them with endless opportunities and also include the under-served in the thriving digital economy. The scholarship program also heavily address the WSIS value number 4. Capacity building. We strongly believe that not only hardware and software are needed to be developed, but also the brain-ware—the human capital. We open the opportunities as inclusively as possible; by including fresh graduates, vocational school graduates, to law enforcement officers and civil servants. We believe in equal access into the enhancement of human capital in the areas of education, technology know-how, and quality information. That is why, we propose this project, as a groundbreaking program to improve the competitiveness and the quality of life by making education affordable for those who are eligible.