Indonesia's school system ranked among lowest globally

Jakarta

HEADING into the final year of his undergraduate degree in computer science Diky Arga, 21, could sense that his studies weren't preparing him for the sorts of jobs he wanted after graduation.

His programme at a university in Semarang followed an outdated curriculum that ignored programming for mobile devices, included scant practical work and was overseen by aloof professors. Mr Arga was anxious that his degree would shut him out of the trendy startups in Jakarta. So Mr Arga enrolled in a commercial programming school in Jakarta, called Hactiv8, shelling out the equivalent of a year's university tuition for the 12-week course. Now he's got three offers for jobs after he graduates later this year that will pay double what his friends are likely to earn.

"For me the job search isn't hard but my friends are having a hard time because they don't have the skills I have," says Mr Arga.

Save for a few good universities, Indonesia's education is generally poor, churning out graduates who are not ready for work in an economy that is increasingly more reliant on knowledge and investment and less on commodities. The upshot is that, while the economy is expanding slowly and yielding few good jobs, for those with skills that companies want, such as software development or engineering, the economy is red hot.

"The shortage is quite acute, especially with the growth we're experiencing," says Monica Oudang, chief human resources officer at ride-hailing app Go-Jek. "As we grow, we are looking for people with specialised skills and a certain amount of experience in that role and that just adds to the complexity of our search."

Go-Jek, Indonesia's first tech unicorn, already has 2,000 staff across three offices, including Banglore, Jakarta and Singapore but has hundreds of vacancies, Ms Oudang says.

Graduates at times are not up to speed on software, lack critical thinking, or communication skills, and can buckle under the pressure of having to prioritise tasks. To cope, the company will begin funnelling new recruits through a six-month training course to bring them up to speed.

And while vacancies haven't derailed plans for product launches or expansion, keeping people more than 18 months before they jump to jobs offering as much as double their current salary is a challenge.

"It's very competitive," Ms Oudang says. "We think we're tracking a little better than the industry average."

On Monday, government statistics are expected to show Indonesia's economy expanded 5.2 per cent during the three months to June. A little better than a year earlier but not far off its 10-year low and a far cry from the rates of 7 per cent that President Joko Widodo promised.

Analysts say the shortage of skilled workers puts Indonesia at a disadvantage with its neighbours. The rot starts in school. According to the Programme of International Student Assessment, in 2015 - the latest available data - Indonesia's schooling was ranked 62nd out of 72 countries assessed - far behind first place Singapore. The World Economic Forum's Human Capital Index meanwhile ranks Indonesia 72nd out of 130 countries in 2016, trailing regional peers including Malaysia and the Philippines.

At Qlue, a mobile app that lets city residents pay bills, monitor municipal announcements and lodge complaints about potholes or litter, its founder and CEO Rama Rusma says the company's plan to expand the service into 50 cities over two years from 15 currently hinges on finding enough software developers.

Qlue, a play on the Indonesian word klusan, which means "complain", just hired 30 web developers and software engineers but still needs another 20, says Mr Rusma. "I'm the sales guy. I'm bringing in customers to eat but I need someone in the kitchen to cook the food."

But for a sense of how Indonesia's skills shortage is crimping growth look at the country's hopes to build its infrastructure - in particular its electricity generating plants. Mr Widodo's administration has pinned its hopes for economic growth by securing investment in infrastructure. The government has vowed to start construction on new plants that will add 35GW of generating capacity to Indonesia's grid. Trouble is, there aren't enough electrical engineers for the job.

While the country churns out more than 30,000 engineers a year, the Japanese and Korean consortiums that are taking up the work tend to hire only from the top three schools, including University of Indonesia, which together pump out 2,000 engineers a year. To build all 35GW will take something in the order of 10,500 engineers, says Heru Dewanto, the president of Cirebon Power, whose investors include Korean Midland Power. The company's 600MW power plant in Central Java was the first to come online under the initiative.

"So far we're fine but we're already losing engineers," Mr Dewanto said. "There just aren't enough of them."

For those who have the skills, though, it's a buyers' market. Shabrina Inmas, 26, who graduated from the Hactiv8 programming school alongside Mr Arga last month, is fielding multiple offers from 12 interviews so far and counting. Her degrees in chemical engineering and computational science had only secured offers in far-flung oil and gas projects. Now she's a hot commodity, she says.

"It feels really nice," she enthuses. "I've never had so many offers before. It's really overwhelming."