Since the inauguration of the 7th President of Indonesia, Mr. Joko Widodo, infrastructure planning has begun to cover the smooth development of Indonesia, including the construction of roads, airports, bridges, ports, and so on. This is understandable given Indonesia’s lag in meeting infrastructure needs to support the national economy. For example, Mr. Jokowi said that since independence, Indonesia has only been able to build 800 km of roads (Source: www.merdeka.com Sunday, December 13, 2015). So, the current era can be called the “Era of Booming Infrastructure Development in Indonesia.”
Based on data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), the contribution of the construction sector to gross domestic product (GDP) has increased year by year, with the construction sector growing by an average of 7.35 percent between 2004 and 2013, while GDP grew by an average of 5.8 percent. During that period, the construction sector contributed an average of 8.79 percent to GDP. This increase shows the strategic role of the construction sector as a driver of the national economy. Fluctuations in the growth of the construction sector tend to coincide with fluctuations in economic growth. Infrastructure supports the food security sector and smooth production processes, improving accessibility and mobility for the community in social and economic activities.
The impact of infrastructure development policies on other economic sectors is very important. Furthermore, according to data from the Logistics and Multimodal Transportation Expert Staff, Ministry of Transportation, Indonesia’s logistics costs still account for 24 percent of production costs (Source: http://economy.okezone.com, Tuesday, 21/10/2014). This makes the value of produced goods higher in the market price. Therefore, reducing production costs is highly dependent on transportation or logistics infrastructure costs.
However, realizing this infrastructure dream is not easy. To implement this infrastructure plan, many engineers, especially in core engineering fields such as civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering, will be needed to assist in the infrastructure development. This is in contrast to the infrastructure plan that has been made, as Indonesia still lacks human resources that strongly support infrastructure, namely engineers.
According to data from the Ministry of Public Works (Source: www.republika.co.id, Friday, March 21, 2014), Indonesia requires 175,000 engineering graduates every year. Unfortunately, Indonesia can only produce around 40,000 engineering graduates annually. This is in contrast to other countries that prepare their human resources to build infrastructure for their countries, such as China and India, which are able to produce 764,000 and 489,000 engineering graduates each year, respectively.
If the shortage of engineers is ignored continuously, it will cause Indonesia to lack sufficient competitiveness to compete with other countries in various sectors, especially in the world of infrastructure, construction, and technology. This is especially true for ASEAN countries, which are the main competitors for regional leadership in various sectors. Not to mention competitors from the Asia region, where China, Japan, and Korea still dominate the infrastructure, construction, and technology sectors. According to data from Engineering News Record (ENR) in 2015 regarding the Top 250 International Contractors in the world, seven of the top ten contractors are from China, with no Indonesian state-owned contractors able to enter this category. Therefore, in the future, the Indonesian government needs to consider developing competent engineers to become world-class state-owned contractors.
Based on data from the Indonesian Central Statistics Agency in 2012, the educational structure of Indonesian society is mostly in elementary and secondary schools. Based on this data, only 9.20% of the Indonesian population has received higher education, either a bachelor’s degree or a diploma, 23.60% have a secondary school education, 17.99% have a junior high school education, 28.92% have an elementary school education, and 20.29% have no education. Of the 9.20% of the population with higher education, only a few may have studied engineering, and to make matters worse, engineering graduates prefer to pursue professions other than engineering. This is a fundamental problem that the Indonesian government must address in order to increase the competitiveness of future generations.
Based on the above data and analysis, it is likely that in order to realize Indonesia’s infrastructure dreams, the government will have no choice but to import engineers from other countries to meet Indonesia’s infrastructure development needs. This is necessary to accelerate the government’s output targets in the infrastructure sector, and it is indeed impossible for the government to wait for universities to produce reliable engineers to meet the government’s targets in the near future.
To support the government’s program in meeting infrastructure needs, Widyatama University, as one of the universities, already has study programs that focus on engineering, namely Bachelor of Industrial Engineering, Bachelor of Informatics Engineering, and Bachelor of Information Systems. In the near future, it will open new study programs, namely Bachelor of Civil Engineering, Bachelor of Electrical Engineering, and Bachelor & Diploma of Mechanical Engineering. Graduates of these four study programs are prepared with certifications from government-recognized institutions, including the Indonesian Construction Experts Association and Dirgantara Indonesia.
Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at Widyatama University, Dr. Rozahi Istambul, said, “Referring to the industrial curriculum, graduates of Widyatama University’s new study programs are ready to be absorbed by industry, both government and private, which have collaborated and are outlined in the MoU. Mechanical and Electrical Engineering students will take practical courses at PT. Dirgantara Indonesia in their sixth semester, while Civil Engineering students will take practical courses at the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing, Research and Development Agency, Center for Road and Bridge Research and Development, Jl. AH. Nasution, Bandung, in their sixth semester. The involvement of industry in the academic process at Widyatama opens up a wide range of employment opportunities in the industry after students complete their studies, added Rozahi.
