Indonesia needs 600,000 human resources for digital sector per year

Jakarta (Indonesia Window) – Indonesia is estimated to need 600,000 human resources engaged in the digital economy sector per year in line with the growth of this sector in the country.

The rapid growth of the digital economy in Indonesia has not been supported by a sufficient number of human resources, commissioner of an Indonesian e-commerce platform Bukalapak Bambang Brodjonegoro said in a webinar on Talent Gap in Digital Economy Era here on Tuesday (Nov. 23).

“The government should find ways to overcome the human resources gap in the digital economy sector. One of them is establishing collaboration with digital companies and start-ups to find the fastest way to overcome the shortage of human resources in the digital economy sector,” Bambang said.

He pointed out that by 2030 the need of human resource in digital economy is estimated to reach 17 million people, with the five most popular jobs related to information technology, namely back end developers, front end developers, android developers, full stack developers and data scientists.

Meanwhile, the Director General of Higher Education at the Ministry of Education and Culture, Nizam, said that higher educational institutions have an important role in meeting the needs of human resources in the digital economy sector.

According to him, currently around 20 percent of higher educational institutions in Indonesia have an informatics study program with a total number of students reaching at least 1 million people.

“So every year, there are around 100,000 graduates who are ready to use in the information technology industries. However, this number is still not sufficient to meet the needs of information technology companies. Therefore, higher educational institutions should have special strategies to improve students’ abilities so that they could be ready to use in the job markets,” he said.

Reporting by Indonesia Window