Universities Urged To Prepare Students To Become Enterpreneurs

Garut, West Java, May 29 (ANTARA) - Manpower minister Muhaimin Iskandar has called on universities to prepare their students to become entrepreneurs and not only to fill vacancies. "We hope universities in the region would not only produce graduates to fill vacancies but would also design programs that could prepare their students to become entrepreneurs," he said at the commemoration of the 14th anniversary of Garut University in West Java and a graduation day at the university here on Wednesday. He hoped with the program graduates that could not be accommodated in the employment market could still have competencies to help them be able to be self-reliant economically as well as to become part of community development. "So, university graduates would not only be ready to fill vacancies but could also provide work for others. They must not only become part of employment but also a solution of our employment problems," he said in his speech on the occasion. Explaining about employment problems in the country the minister said that the rate of unemployment in the country was still very high while most workforce is still dominated by elementary school leavers. He said workers` vocational skills and self-reliance or entrepreneurship meanwhile were still low. Based on the National Statistics Agency survey in August 2012 total workforce in the country was recorded at 118.053 million and 93.86 percent of them work leaving 6.14 percent unemployed or around seven million people. Most of the workforce are elementary school leavers totaling 48.62 percent and only 6.3 percent is university graduates. Of the total unemployed 8.7 percent are university graduates and 8.09 percent are elementary school leavers and those who have never attended schools. In view of the unemployment rate the minister hoped university graduates would use programs and facilities that have been provided by the government to become entrepreneurs. "Through government programs like domestic and foreign investment employment would be created to absorb our workers," he said.