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While many populations in the
world are aging, Indonesia’s population is exploding. In terms of
consumption, it means Indonesia is still a very attractive market.
However, such a condition is accompanied by classic problems derived from
overcrowding including, but not limited to, a high crime rate,
unemployment, diminishing living space, mounting trash, water scarcity
and risks of flooding.
In terms of the oversupply of manpower, Indonesia enjoys a high number of
blue-collar workers. With the right mind-set, attitude, skills, and
knowledge base, Indonesia’s population explosion can be turned into a
winning formula.
According to a UN report titled World Population Ageing 1950-2050, there
are four main characteristics of this aging world population: unprecedented,
pervasive, enduring and has profound implications. In this century, aging
in the world’s population is unprecedented, due to significantly lower
birth and mortality rates. This is the case not only in developed Western
countries, such as those in Europe, Canada and the United States, but
also in Asian countries like Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan and Singapore.
Indonesia, however, is an exception. According to 2012 data, there are
17.7 births annually per 1,000 people. Every year, approximately 3.5 million
to 4.5 million births occur, which is almost the entire population of
Singapore. In Singapore, approximately only 7.72 births occur annually
per 1,000 people, while in Korea and Japan, the ratio is 8.4:1,000 and in
Taiwan, is 8.7:1,000
The Philippines also enjoys a high annual birth rate of approximately 25
births per 1,000 people, while India has an annual average of 20.6 births
per 1,000 people.
These two countries now supply the world with unskilled and highly
skilled workers as well as white-collar information technology (IT)
workers and executives. Unfortunately, Indonesian migrant workers are
notorious for their lack of skills, which could have been resolved with
simple trainings and updated public education programs.
The world has changed: It is highly interconnected and globalized. Thus,
people, their skills and knowledge must adapt as well.
Today, people rarely sweep floors with traditional floor sweepers;
instead, they use high-tech vacuum cleaners, such as those produced by
Dyson. Society is also more conscious about safety and security issues;
thus, migrant workers must upgrade their life skills.
Nannies are no longer merely companions for children; they are also
expected to possess basic medical skills in the event of an emergency,
such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) including mouth-to-mouth
resuscitation. Most migrant workers from Indonesia, however, lack these
basic skills.
In terms of highly skilled and highly trained workers, India and the
Philippines score far higher than Indonesia. These two countries’ workers
have been enjoying offshore outsourcing trends with jobs imported from
high-wage countries like the US and those in the European Union (EU).
India is renowned for hard-skilled workers in IT, accounting, taxation
and medical technology. The Philippines is renowned for soft-skilled
workers in areas such as customer service, research, writing, editing and
call centers.
Both Indian and Philippine workers are by default capable of speaking
fluent English, albeit with their regional accents. While Indians tend to
be more British-inclined, Filipinos are more Americanized due to being a
former US colony. Both countries have absorbed the English language,
making it part of their lives, despite social and economic statuses.
Thus, they are ready to be trained in English and they can perform tasks
in this language naturally.
Indonesia, on the other hand, has not made English a significant part of
daily conservation, other than in urban areas and among the highly
educated. English is still considered a language only used by those with
a higher social status.
It is time to get rid of the notion that English is an “elite” language.
No, it isn’t. It is a means of communication. And if you speak and write
English well, you will definitely have better opportunities than those
people who don’t.
With the right mind-set, attitude, skills, and knowledge, Indonesian
workers have an unprecedented opportunity to break into the world labor
market, especially in countries whose populations are aging.
What is the “right” mind-set? The ability to speak, think and perform
jobs in English, as it is the most widely used language in the world, and
it the language of the Internet. We can no longer separate the
face-to-face world with the online world; it is one and the same.
What is the “right” attitude? The right attitude is projected when
someone shows confidence in working in other cultures.
In short, cultural capital is often-overlooked capital that matters most
in winning in the 21st century.
What are the “right” skills? Skills that were worthy in the 1980s and
1990s, for instance, may no longer be useful in the 21st century. IT,
biotechnology, medicine, and other hard skills are more economically
useful than skills in the liberal arts or knowledge.
Science makes people’s lives better, healthier and longer. In contrast,
although the arts do, of course, bring happiness and joy to many people,
they cannot prolong lives with direct intervention as medical science
does.
What is the “right” knowledge base? Knowledge that is essential for
living successfully anywhere in the world, including fluency in foreign
languages, financial literacy, technological literacy and an awareness to
continuously upgrade one’s existing knowledge.
The Indonesian government must rise to the occasion by sincerely
assisting Indonesians of all social and economic classes to grow globally
with the appropriate mind-set, attitude, skills and knowledge base. Let’s
start with good governance with transparency and willingness in creating
a safe environment for progress. ●
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