Panca Nugraha

The Jakarta Post

Mataram | Wed, June 8 2016 | 07:13 am

A development aid group has channeled US$2 million to train employees for a renewable energy project in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB).

The Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) Indonesia is delivering the grant through a renewable energy technology profession certification and training program (PEKA SINERGI) jointly conducted by Mataram University, the KM Utama Indonesia consulting institution and the development and empowerment center for teachers in mechanical and industrial engineering (P4TK) Bandung.

Mataram University’s deputy rector overseeing cooperation, Suwardji, said the program, to be held over the next 30 months, was expected to create competent and certified employees in the field of renewable energy technology (TET).

“We have been starting to provide basic training on renewable energy engineering in 12 vocational schools [SMK] to be pilot projects in Lombok,” Suwardji said, after concluding a recent training session for about 50 teachers from the vocational schools.

The participating teachers came from three SMK in North Lombok, three SMK in Central Lombok, two SMK from East Lombok, three SMK from West Lombok and an SMK from Mataram city. They were given basic training on TET in the fields of biomass, solar, wind and hydro energy engineering.

Based on Government Regulation (PP) No. 79/2014 on national energy policy, he added, the government had launched a 35,000 MW program for Indonesia by increasing the use of renewable energy from 6 percent in 2010 to 23 percent in 2025.

He said the need for energy in Bali and Nusa Tenggara continued to increase year after year with an average growth of 5.2 percent a year so this needed to be followed by an increase in the number of people skilled in TET.

Suwardji said PEKA SINERGI would also establish a TET certification and training center expected to start running by mid-2018.

“The center in the future will not just serve SMK graduates from Lombok or NTB but also from across Indonesia,” said Suwardji, adding that so far there has been no standardization for employees in TET and Lombok would be the first nationwide to provide it.

He said with standardization and certification, SMK graduates in TET would have a recognized competitive advantage to work in the field of TET both in the country and within the ASEAN countries.

Apart from the training for teachers in the 12 selected SMK, PEKA SINERGI also provides the facilities needed to develop TET studies in those schools.

Separately, the head of the NTB Education Agency’s SMK section, M. Nasib, said that PEKA SINERGI would be very advantageous for NTB in developing the capacity of people in the field of TET, especially SMK students.

Nasib said NTB currently has 281 SMK, both privately run and state-run ones, spread throughout Lombok and the Sumbawa Islands with a total of 64,000 students.

Based on the existing data, he added, every year these SMK produced up to 15,000 graduates.

“With the certification program in the future SMK graduates, especially those in the field of TET in NTB, will be more competent to fill in the available job opportunities,” he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/06/08/grant-funds-employee-train...