The Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin) through the Industrial Human Resources Development Agency (BPSDMI) has increased cooperation with the Solo City Government (Pemkot) in the development of Solo Technopark to answer the high demand for labor in the Textile and Textile Product (TPT) industry in Indonesia, especially Central Java .
"The extension of this cooperation is to improve the quality and competence of industrial human resources, especially the textile industry, through the development of the Solo Textile Community Academy (AK) which is under the guidance of the Ministry of Industry's BPSDMI and is located in the Solo Technopark complex," said the Head of BPSDMI Kemenperin Arus Gunawan.
Some time ago the Head of BPSDMI and the Echelon II officials of the Ministry of Industry had a meeting with the Mayor of Solo, Gibran Rakabuming Raka. "So far, we have been working with the Municipal Government of Solo, so now we need to increase this cooperation," said Arus.
He is optimistic that with a competent workforce the textile industry will be more competitive and will play an important role in making a significant contribution to the national economy.
"So far, the textile industry is one of the sectors that has contributed quite a lot of foreign exchange from its exports and has become a labor-intensive sector by absorbing a lot of labor," said Arus.
The Ministry of Industry noted that the export performance of the apparel industry in 2020 reached US $ 7.04 billion. The textile industry sector contributes 6.76 percent to the GDP of the non-oil and gas processing industry in 2020.
Arus explained that AK-Textile Solo is one of the education units owned by the Ministry of Industry which organizes an education program equivalent to Diploma II and consists of three study programs, namely Yarn Making Technique, Fabric Making Technique and Garment Making Technique.
Until now, AK-Tekstil Solo has graduated more than 1,000 students, with 300 graduates each year and 100 percent of them are absorbed by work in major textile companies in Indonesia, such as PT Pan Brothers, PT Mataram Tunggal Garmen, and PT Sritex Tbk.
"AK-Tekstil Solo has become a pioneer of vocational education as a reference, because it builds good collaboration between educational institutions and industry," said Arus.
This means that AK-Textiles Solo is able to supply skilled labor in accordance with the needs of the textile industry today.
"This is not spared because of the implementation of BPSDMI's flagship program, namely link and match with industry players who integrate educational curricula on campus with industrial education so that the learning process can run effectively and produce graduates who have competencies according to industry needs and are ready to work directly in the industry. "He added.
The choice of Solo as the location for the establishment of the Ministry of Industry's education unit is also inseparable from the city's icon which has been known as a textile center in Indonesia, especially the batik industry.
"In the future, this cooperation will be discussed again for the sake of the growth of the industrial world in Solo. I hope that AK-Tekstil and Solo Technopark can grow for the supply chain of the industry, ”explained Arus.
In the meeting, the two parties also agreed to discuss further in more detail regarding this cooperation plan.
"After this there is still a follow-up meeting," said Gibran when giving an explanation to reporters after the meeting ended.
Previously, the Ministry of Industry had collaborated with Solo Technopark owned by the Surakarta City Government and the Central Java Indonesian Textile Association (API) in the context of establishing AK-Textile Solo at the end of 2015 and was inaugurated by President Joko Widodo on January 26, 2016.
