Indonesia
Vocational training for youth in Indonesia
Helping students in Indonesia get vocational training and find skilled jobs
Education & Training
The Need
Across Indonesia, Compassion’s church partners are doing everything they can to help beneficiaries break free from poverty for good. As young people begin making critical decisions about their future, helping them gain employable skills is an important step towards becoming self-sufficient and drastically improving their quality of life.
Indonesia’s booming mining industry currently provides jobs for about 100,000 people and is hiring an average of 3,000 to 5,000 new employees every year. Even at this current rate of growth, however, demand is still exceeding supply, and many companies are struggling to find qualified people to meet the need. To solve this problem, both the Indonesian government and private sector companies have implemented programs that offer competence-based education and worker retraining.
Skills training is expensive, however, and students who have grown up in poverty simply can’t afford to take hold of the opportunities at hand. To help bridge this gap for young people in need, Compassion has been developing a partnership with PT. United Tractors, a mining company that set up its own vocational training school in Samarinda, the capital city of the East Kalimantan province. The school offers a four-month boarding school training program and has a proven track record of helping graduates find jobs quickly. Seven of our church partners identified several students they felt would benefit from this training based on financial need and competency.
Our Response
This intervention was initially scheduled to launch in May 2020. The arrival of COVID-19 upended those plans, shuttering businesses and services across Indonesia including our collaborating partner, PT United Tractors. After months of uncertainty, PT United Tractors reopened their education services in early 2021 with some adjustments. During virtual meetings with our frontline church partners, planning for this intervention resumed with an adjusted timeline.
Between January and March of 2022, 15 eager participants were finally able to complete their theoretical training in heavy equipment operations. Students then went on to complete practical internships for a further one to two months. Upon completing this intensive course, participants received a certificate which will qualify them for a range of jobs in mineral mining and infrastructure development.
During the delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, we were able to plan a second course of training in the aviation industry for 12 additional participants. The three-month in-class program was followed by two months of hands-on training at Sepinggan Balikpapan airport. Classroom training took place between January and April of 2022, and on-site training ran from June through August. Participants received a basic aviation industry education certificate that will qualify them for jobs in various airport and airline services. We praise God that we were able to help 27 students access vital job training—10 more than initially planned!
Activities
Vocational training: Students attended two to three months of in-class theoretical training. Fifteen students completed training in operating heavy equipment, which they can use to find jobs in the booming mining industry. Another 12 students completed training in the aviation industry and are qualified to work at the local growing airport.
Hands-on training: Following the in-class training, students gained valuable on-the-job training in operating heavy machinery or working at the airport with one to two months of practical internships.
Your Gift Provides...
Your generosity allowed 27 students in Indonesia to receive skills training to equip them for the workforce:
• Students’ accommodation and meals
• Tools and equipment
• 4 computers, printers and Internet service
• Heavy Equipment Training School tuition
• Centre of Excellence Aviation Program tuition
• Transportation expenses
• Emotional and spiritual support
ReportA message from those your gift helped
Before the training, I never had a formal or informal education in the aviation industry. Because of the training, I now have basic training in airline grounding service and other basic services in the airport.
I am now equipped to be able to work for the airlines in the airport in their ground handling services or in the airport itself. I also have direct experience in a real job setting because of the two-month internship, which I hope will bolster my CV to benefit me as I apply for a job in the future. I learned many other things during the training, for example how to write a good CV, how to do a job interview, basic English in hospitality and basic personal financial management. I really hope that in the near future I can get a job in the airline at the airport so that I can start earning money for myself and my family.
Through this intervention, I learned that if we can have an opportunity, then we can still have a dream to pursue. I see in the real world that people work very hard to appreciate the opportunities they have. My friends and I were given an opportunity and we will not waste it.
Thank you very much, and may God repay all the kindness given to me and my friends. We will repay our sponsors by working hard to make our parents and church proud of us.
ReportThank you for your generosity
Thanks to you, 27 young people from 10 Compassion centres in Indonesia have gained valuable skills that will qualify them for good jobs. This has been a life-changing opportunity and represents a huge leap forward for these students, who would otherwise have had little hope of breaking free from the cycle of poverty.
Christian discipleship is a critical part of Compassion’s holistic development program, which seeks to provide Biblically sound guidance and leadership opportunities to young people during this formative stage of their lives. Throughout the course of their training, students have continued to receive spiritual care from loving Christian mentors and leaders at their local Compassion centres. They have participated in Bible studies and Christian leadership training and have learned how to model the love of Christ to their communities.
With your help, these 27 young men and women can begin building a much better life for themselves and their families. As they enter the workforce and continue developing their skills and abilities, they will be positioned well to embrace further opportunities to grow and advance.
Thank you for sowing hope into these young lives—they will never be the same!
ReportA message from a centre director
We have six participants who benefited from this program. All participants never had any formal training in the aviation industry. The training they had opened a new horizon and new opportunity for them in the future, especially because our region has been officially selected to be the new Indonesian Capital City. We expect that more and more development will be taking place in the future so that the heavy equipment, aviation and the airline industries will also grow together. Thus, it will also give the opportunity for our participants to land a job in the field.
The intervention could not be funded by the centre or the church. We feel that this intervention is helping the churches and the families, since we could not afford to send these participants to such a program. In the future, if the participants successfully land a job, it would be their family’s great joy and the church’s great joy too. Now that this program really benefits them, I feel that we kept our promises to them.
I thank you on behalf of the church for your donation so that the training program activities for participants could be carried out successfully. Moving forward, we pray that the Lord Jesus will continue to bless you and supply your every need. God bless you.