Afriansyah Noor, Indonesia’s Deputy Minister of Labour, met with Heri Akhmadi, the Republic of Indonesia’s Ambassador to Japan, on a recent working visit to Tokyo to talk about apprenticeships programmes and the potential to increase employment prospects in Japan.
Furthermore, Deputy Minister Afriansyah said that there were 8,736 Indonesian apprentices in Japan in 2022. This shows that the number of people taking part in the project has been growing. This number went through the roof the next year, and by 2023, 13,396 people had signed up for the training course.
Afriansyah said: “The increase in the number of apprenticeship participants shows the great enthusiasm of Indonesian young people to improve their competence through apprenticeships.”
Indonesia is currently encouraging people to collaborate on job placement to involve its workers in the Specified Skilled Workers (SSW) scheme.
Indonesia is taking part in the SSW initiative in an effort to increase the opportunities available to the labour force. To this aim, the Ministry of Labour and the Miyagi Prefectural Government have inked a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) on the expeditious placement and acceptance of Indonesian technicians, skilled labourers, and technical apprentices in Japan.
This MoC seeks to increase youth employment prospects in Japan, particularly via SSW or apprenticeship initiatives.
“With this MoC, I hope diplomatic relations in the field of employment between Indonesia and Japan will be further strengthened,” Deputy Minister Afriansyah stated. “In addition to the above Memorandum of Understanding with the Miyagi Prefectural Government, Indonesia has also signed an MoU with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which aims to develop human resources so they can contribute to social and economic development in both countries, including solutions to increase the number of SSW programme participants from Indonesia.
Deputy Minister Afriansyah affirmed that this MoC will further strengthen diplomatic relations in the field of employment between Indonesia and Japan.
