TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The government is currently drafting a new regulation allowing cash incentives, amounting to Rp100 million (US$7,700) for young engineers in a bid to attract new graduates to work and shape their career in engineering.
“The discussion on the regulation has been started. Hopefully it will be effective in 2016,” Djoko Santoso, a member of expert council at the Indonesia Engineers Association (PII), during the PII national leaders’ meeting and extraordinary congress in Jakarta.
PII chairman Bobby Gafur Umar said called the government’s policy as an “apt breakthrough” since only 45 percent of Indonesian engineers are working in the field. According to Bobby, the condition was related to the job availability and perks offered by other fields. Bobby added, the state would require 250,000 new engineers to meet development demands over the next five years. Meanwhile, Bobby predicted that the number of engineer candidates was only half of the requirement.
“It means that there would be 120,000 vacant positions, unless we recruit engineers from overseas,” Bobby said in a press release on Sunday, May 24, 2015.
Therefore, he hopes that the incentive would increase the number of new engineers. Currently, the criteria of incentive receivers are being reviewed. However, the government would prioritize new competent engineers to receive the fund.
URSULA FLORENE SONIA
