In the current Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0), where digital technology is embedded in almost every industry, businesses have transformed their operations to become more efficient and productive. The speed of transformation has been incredibly high, creating a skillset mismatch between the labor supply and demand. It sounds like a big challenge, but it offers tremendous opportunities – jobs that previously did not exist, start to emerge and demand significant labor absorption. The Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs has estimated that the economic potential of the digital sector reaches US$ 133 billion or IDR 1.973 trillion. This growing trend provides young talents across the country an excellent opportunity to develop careers in digital sectors.
Industry 4.0 paves the path for West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) province to increase economic growth exponentially since almost half of its 2.4 million workforces are comprised of millennials who are known for the love of information technology. For this reason, young people must improve their competence and skills in digital technology to increase competitiveness and benefit from the opportunities that the Internet of Things (IoT) era provides.
To respond to this challenge, PT Amman Mineral Nusa Tenggara (Amman) has launched a scholarship program for millennials in Sumbawa and West Sumbawa Regencies to participate in training to learn computer programming language or coding. This initiative is part of Amman’s commitment to empowering local communities around its mine site. As the biggest copper and gold mining company in NTB, Amman envisions creating the best legacy by developing communities’ economic resilience and autonomy.
“The coding scholarship program is a golden opportunity for all young people in Sumbawa and West Sumbawa to learn from the experts and expand their chance to build professional experience in digital technology,” said Amman’s Head of Social Impact, Yudha Jayadikarta.
The coding boot camp will run intensively for 16 weeks starting on November 9th, 2020, and will be facilitated by the Glints Academy who will organize the training virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The subsequent training sessions are planned to be conducted at Glints Academy’s training center in Batam after the pandemic. All ten selected participants have completed a 4-week foundational training to assess their basic coding, English, and other required skills to master complex computer programming techniques such as web frontend, web backend, and reactive native.
Most of the participants are the first to have the opportunity to learn IT (Information Technology) in their families and communities. They hope to be the agents of change in their communities, transforming their environment with digital technologies and influencing their peers to follow suit. One of the participants, Eka Diah Cahyani, shares this passion. Eka, a student from Taliwang, West Sumbawa Regency, aspires to become an expert in IT development after recently completed her study in Statistics at the Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB). The coding boot camp opens the door for her to pursue her dream.
“I will make the best of the opportunity provided by Amman to make my dream come true. I would like to work for a startup company. I want to emphasize to all young people out there that we will have many alternatives for career development when we manage to acquire skills in digital technology,” Eka explained.
Eka Diah believes that young people must be technologically literate to fill in the demands of the digital era. Thus, one must be strong-willed and prepared to walk the extra mile to flourish in the Industry 4.0 era.
