The establishment of sectoral skills council in the electronics sector, strengthened collaboration between industries and the technical and vocational education and training (TVET) including government, the implementation of the apprentice programmes, the integration of soft skills into the curricula as well as better coordination between industries and relevant governmental institutions at the regional level were the five recommendations developed during the ILO’s two-day event of the development of electronics sectoral skills strategies.

The recommendations were developed through a series of group works covering a range of issues from business environment, market trends, SWOT analysis in the electronics industry to gaps in business skills and its implication to skills, and skills providers and systemic challenges found.

Through the group works, the participants—representing the key actors of electronics industry from governmental institutions, academia, electronics companies, workers’ and employers’ organizations—Jointly shared their experiences and examined the conditions and the contribution of the electronics sector to the implementation of responsible business conduct and skills development.

Held in Cikarang, West Java from 19-20 February, the workshop was conducted by the ILO’s Skills Development and Responsible Business Conduct, funded by Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) of Japan, in partnership with the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs (CMEA) and the Coordinating Ministry of Human Development and Culture (CMHDC).

The event provided a venue for the participants—representing companies, trade unionists, academia and TVETs and government institutions—to share their experiences and expertise and jointly identify ways to develop a strong collaboration among relevant partners.

In his remarks, Chairul Saleh, CMEA’s Deputy Assistant on Improving Regional Economic Competitiveness, emphasized the urgency of skills link and match. “We need to conduct an industrial mapping to identify the needs of the industries, particularly the electronics industry, and to strengthen the collaboration with the industries that is crucial for accommodating the demographic bonus in 2030,” he said.

Meanwhile, A. Saufi, Deputy Assistant for Vocational Education and Higher Education of the CMHCD, underscored the importance of sectoral skills council as part of the implementation of the National Coordination Team for Revitalizing Vocational Education and Training (TNKV) based the Ministerial Decree of CMHCD No. 5/2022 on Roles and Functions of TNKV.

“TNKV is incomplete without the sectoral skills council that has a key role in providing competent workers according to the need of the industries, particularly the electronics industry. The sectoral skills council is the answer for our current and future needs for skills link and match,” he remarked.

Applying the lessons learnt from the ILO previous projects, the establishment of the sectoral skills council for electronic industry, according to Dede Sudono, Programme Coordinator for ILO’s Skills Development and Responsible Business Conduct in Indonesia, would be utilized the ILO’s Skills for Trade and Economic Diversification (STED). STED is a sector level methodology that assists in the formation of skills development policies and strategies that help countries become more competitive in the context of open markets and building or maintaining a sound and diversified economic structure.

During the workshop, an initial finding of the research regarding the Indonesian electronic industry, jointly conducted by the ILO and the Indonesian University’s Economic and Social Research Institute of the Faculty of Economics and Business (LPEM-FEB UI), was presented. The research reveals that there is a significant decrease of workers in the electronics sector from 3.8 million workers in 2010 to around six hundred thousand workers in 2022.

The research also finds that the sector is dominantly occupied by micro- and small-sized enterprises, except for the subsector of components and electronic boards that are dominated by big-sized companies. Previously in 2010, the sector is dominated by male workers with an increased number of female workers starting in 2018.

M. Zaki from the HRD department of Axio Group said that the workshop had provided him with insights from the trade unions. “This is part of the social dialogue that shows us the importance of finding solutions for upskilling and reskilling programmes.”

A similar notion was also shared by Djoko Wahyudi, President of Trade Union Federation of Panasonic Gobel. He highlighted the significant role of trade union in promoting skills matches and in developing competent and skilled workers according to the needs of the industry.

“We have supported the development of human capital for Panasonic Gobel through our community training centre. To date, we have trained around 8,000 skilled workers of whom the majority has been absorbed by the Panasonic Gobel and the remaining workers have the competency to find jobs or establish a business in electronics sector,” he concluded.