Language training opens up opportunities in Indonesia
Tourism ministry has plants to improve service training and lift skill standards.
INDONESIA must equip its foreign language education curriculum with better facilities and competent instructors to produce a qualified workforce to support its growing tourist sector, officials and educators have suggested.
A poor grasp of foreign languages and a lack of IT and managerial skills are considered key reasons why Indonesia’s human resources in the sector lag behind its neighbours.
The problems, however, do not entirely lie within the quality of teachers. There are also problems in the education sector more broadly, Ahman Sya, the Tourism Ministry’s deputy for institutional development, said.
Ahman said many Indonesian schools, including vocational schools (SMKs) offering courses in tourism, were struggling from a lack of supporting facilities to accommodate the development of language and IT skills.
The situation has been exacerbated by a limited number of skilled teachers, especially in remote parts of the archipelago.
“Many schools, for example, have no language lab for their students. How can we produce a qualified workforce for our tourist industry under these conditions,” he asked recently in Batam.
Ahman noted that the quality of Indonesia’s human resources in the tourist sector ranked just fifth in the region, behind Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.
By next year, the ministry hopes Indonesia will rank third in Asean, he said.
The Tourism Ministry recently revealed plans to establish official certification institutions (LSP) for SMKs involved in tourism in all 34 provinces, as well as provide training to around 17,600 workers nationwide, in order to improve the service quality of Indonesia’s tourist workers.
The ministry has also begun to provide training workshops for small and medium-sized enterprises to help them come up with ideas to lure visitors into a particular region.
For example, a small workshop was held last week in Batam for local workers to help them improve their interaction with tourists, as well as develop particular attractions in the area.
By involving vocational schools in its certification programme, Ahman said the ministry was aiming to certify 35,000 tourist workers this year, double the number certified last year.
The effort will also pave the way for Indonesia to lure 12 million international visitors this year, a step closer to the target set by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to attract 20 million international visitors per year by 2019, Ahman said.
“A joint (certification) effort from the Tourism Ministry and the Culture and Education Ministry is expected to not only improve the quality of SMKs involved in tourism but also their graduates,” he said.
Data from the Culture and Education Ministry show that Indonesia has more than 13,000 vocational schools. Vocational schools specialise in fields such as tourism, business, maritime industry and machinery.
Suratno, the principal of the SMK 6 vocational high school in Surakarta in Central Java, admitted that although the school taught English as a compulsory subject, not all his teachers grasped English at an advanced level.
This problem, however, has been solved with the availability of a language lab that helps students study independently. The facility also offers basic Japanese courses.
“Through the teaching of languages, the students will have references to call on in their jobs in the future,” he said.
Most of the SMK 6’s 1,250 students are female, Suratno said.
While many have expressed interest in working overseas, family pressures made many of them prefer to look for jobs close to home, he aid.
Like the many other SMKs, SMK 6 in Surakarta has also looked into possible partnerships with overseas tourist operators, such as those in Malaysia.
Up to 420 new students enrol in the institution every year.
