Job Training Program
Real training for real opportunities – how a local NGO is shaking up Bali’s youth employment programs
Bali-based NGO Stella’s Child today unveiled its latest initiative to bring life-changing employment opportunities to the disadvantaged youth of the island. Currently, school-based employment placement schemes usually place young people in menial roles with no compensation. Stella’s Child’s Job Training and Internship Program works closely with highly regarded local businesses to identify their real needs, then finds the talented young people to fill those gaps. In return, the businesses pay fair compensation, recognizing the value the young people provide.
Stella’s Child also ensures that the young people in the program are fully equipped to make the most of future opportunities, through supplementary training in Entrepreneurship, Personal Finance and Budgeting, Office Administration and Management, and Leadership and Communications. This move follows President Joko Widodo’s March speech calling on the country’s young people to embrace entrepreneurship and ties in with the Government’s objectives to create a business-minded new generation to support Indonesia’s future economic targets.
Two years in the making, the innovative program has launched with high reviews from the youth and the businesses engaged. The youth that opted-in to the program were commended by Stella’s Child and orphanage leaders for their pioneering decision to engage in a program never before implemented in Indonesia. It will not be a smooth ride, but the greatest of gains never come easily.
On the same day, Stella’s Child’s proven FirstEmploy program reached its new milestone, with a new wave of nine graduates having passed its program, learning how to assess their own skills, write high impact CVs and succeed in real interviews. Four of them were interviewed for promising positions by leading Bali jeweler John Hardy.
FirstEmploy was set up in recognition of the fact that Indonesian children from disadvantaged backgrounds often face a particularly difficult struggle in finding a meaningful career, lacking the means and expertise to navigate the job market. It connects forward-thinking enterprises with access to the deep talent pool of its graduates, matching the young people’s newly developed skills with the needs of these businesses. So far, 100% of its graduates have found jobs, with salaries up to 10 times higher than the minimum wage.
Tim Cameron, founder and executive director of Stella’s Child, said “The education sector needs to be better at teaching Indonesian children the creative and entrepreneurial skills they need to succeed in the working world, but businesses also need to be more open to recognizing, recruiting and nurturing local talent. Many Balinese businesses we work with are rising to that challenge, and see it as a way of reducing dependence on staff from overseas. It’s an exciting moment, for Bali’s young people and its future economy.”
