Surabaya, 7 March 2020 – The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) noted that the economic growth of Surabaya in 2018 has achieved 6,19 percent. The city’s economic growth is higher than East Java, 5.5 percent and national 5.17 percent. But behind these achievements, unemployment is still an important record that must be considered by stakeholders. The average number of open unemployment in Surabaya during 2017-2019 reached 5.99 percent. According to the Chairman of Kadin Surabaya, M Ali Affandi, Surabaya faces severe challenges, especially the increase in the workforce that has not been matched by new jobs so that it requires maximum involvement of the middle and lower business groups. *
Since 2015, HSBC Indonesia together with YCAB Foundation (Yayasan Cinta Anak Bangsa) has been working to tackle the problem of unemployment from a young age by organizing an educational project called Anak Bangsa Siap Berkarya (ABSB). The five-year program aims to equip 5000 vocational students from underprivileged people with job readiness skills and knowledge entrepreneurship. There are two types of sub-programs in ABSB, namely Ready to Work which provides workforce readiness training, such as writing a CV, facing job interviews and presentations. While Ready to Business provides entrepreneurship training in which participants learn financial management and are given venture capital to practice implementing business ideas. Within a period of five years, ABSB has been implemented in various major cities in Indonesia, namely Jakarta, Medan, Bandung, Surabaya, and Semarang.
The ABSB program in Surabaya was implemented from 2017 to 2020. This program has managed to reach 1076 young people from 10 vocational high schools. “YCAB and HSBC hope that the job-ready skills provided to the participants through the ABSB program will encourage employment in Surabaya. This is part of our mission to build superior human resources to support development in Indonesia,” explained Veronica Colondam, CEO and founder of YCAB Foundation.
After going through the evaluation phase, 26 finalists were selected from the Ready to Work Program and 16 groups consisting of 38 participants from the Ready to Business Program in the ABSB Surabaya program. At the closing ceremony on March 7, 2020, at the Grand Dafam Signature, Surabaya, the finalists of the Ready to Work Program presented their work plans and dream work. While the finalists of the Ready to Business Program will present business plans.
Jovanda (17 years old) who is in 11th grade at Harapan Sejati Vocational School, Surabaya, is one of the finalists of Ready to Business. She runs a variety of marketing strategies to encourage the sale of geprek chicken and cheese in a cup that she pioneered since 2018. She deliberately sells in front of factories in the vicinity of her residence in the Menganti area. In addition to that, she also made sales through social media. She applied a different strategy when selling at her school, “I changed the price from 10,000 to Rp 5,000 to fit my friends’ abilities. I also changed the design of the product to make it look better. Thanks to the knowledge I gained from the ABSB program at school, I was able to make all those changes,” explained the young girl who is familiarly called Jo. After attending the training, Jo gets a monthly net profit of around Rp 250,000 – 400,000.
HSBC and YCAB continue to be committed to strengthening the young generation with a variety of vocational skills. Starting in 2020, HSBC and YCAB will inaugurate the Batik Learning House in Semarang, revitalize training centers in Central Java by building the capacity of trainers in BLK (Job Training Centers), LKP (Course and Training Institutions) and LPK (Work Training Institutions), providing improved technical curriculum and facilitated private sector participation in internships and work placements.