Minister seeks skilled workforce via Migrant Center

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Minister for the Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (P2MI) Abdul Kadir Karding aims to develop skilled migrant workers through the establishment of Migrant Center services.

"This is what I want to improve. Shifting from domestic (workers), namely (those) from elementary and junior high school (education) to (those with) high school and university backgrounds. From low skills to medium and higher skills," the minister stated after the inauguration of the Migrant Center at Diponegoro University (Undip), Semarang, on Thursday, as stated by the Ministry of P2MI in Jakarta.

He noted that currently, about 80 percent of Indonesian migrant (PMI) workers are employed in the domestic sector.

"On average, they still work as domestic workers, around 80 percent. Of that number, as many as 67.3 percent are women, and most have only completed elementary or junior high school," he stated.

Karding affirmed that the ministry is keen to shift the trend of PMI, from the domestic sector to skilled workers.

To this end, he expressed hope that the Migrant Center can foster a new ecosystem to help improve the skills of PMI.

"That is the purpose of the migrant center. We build an ecosystem starting from information to training and everything available here at Undip. Hopefully, Undip could become the mouthpiece of Java," he remarked.

The inauguration of the Migrant Center was marked by the signing of a cooperation agreement between the Director General of Promotion and Utilization of Overseas Employment Opportunities KP2MI, Dwi Setiawan Susanto, and Chancellor of Undip, Suharmono, and witnessed directly by Minister Karding.