CIKARANG: Astra Manufacturing Polytechnic (Polman Astra) today (10/5) are doing a groundbreaking of the construction for Polman Astra Delta Silicon Campus located at Industrial Area of Delta Silicon II, Cikarang, Bekasi Regency, West Java, as commitment to improve the vocational education in Indonesia
Indonesian Minister of Research, Technology and Higher Education Mohamad Nasir and Indonesian Minister of Industry Airlangga Hartarto also attended, and accompanied by President Director of PT Astra International Tbk Prijiono Sugiarto.
Since 1995, Astra has been support a development contribution of Polman Astra under supervision of the Foundation of Yayasan Astra Bina Ilmu (YABI) as vocational education institution in technology, especially the one that related with automotive and natural resources.
“The Polman Astra campus in the Delta Silicon industrial area is expected to develop a portfolio of programs both from new study programs and competency certification, such as the Meister in the automotive sector, which recently open at Polman Astra, and now become the first German Meister certification program in Asia,” said Prijono Sugiarto during the groundbreaking of Polman Astra Delta Silicon Campus.
The Polman Astra Delta Silicon campus will be the development campus of the Sunter campus, North Jakarta. It was designed as a green campus that built on a 5 hectare land with a total area of 47.000 square meters. The facilities consist of study rooms, laboratories, workshops, teaching factories and dorms for new students. Its capacity is expected to be 4 times bigger than the other campus.
With this capacity, Polman Astra is preparing to develop top programs. Recently, Polman Astra has 6 Associate Degree Study Programs. The study program will be increased both from the type and number of students that will be accommodated on the development campus. Aside from that, Polman Astra will have the capacity to develop competency certification education programs that are highly needed by the industrial world.
For the last 5 years, about 60% Polman Astra graduates working on Astra Group, while the rest of it is working on other industrial sector and few of them are continuing their studies and running a business. This is one of the way to support the government programs by doing link and match between industrial need and vocational high education.
Aside from that, Astra’s industrial support for Polman Astra is reflected in the Dual System, which is a collaboration of curriculum development, internship in the Astra industry, Astra industry lecturers who teach at Polman Astra, and support facilities for practical learning. Polman Astra has been awarded learning facilities from the Astra industry, including PT Astra Honda Motor, PT Gaya Motor, PT Astra Isuzu Motor Indonesia, PT Astra Agro Lestari Tbk, PT Astra Daihatsu Motor, PT Astra Graphia Information Technology, PT Astra International Tbk– Auto2000, and PT Toyota Astra Motor who recently donated 2 units of cars for Astra Automotive Meister Preparation and Certification Program.
Astra Meister Program
As part of developing the portfolio of the competency certification program, Polman Astra also launched the “Astra Automotive Meister Preparation and Certification Program”. Developed with the German Indonesian Economic Association (EKONID), the first batch of the program was attended by 10 participants, from PT Astra International Tbk Sales Operations and Polman Astra graduates. Each batch will study in Polman Astra for 10 months. For the first quarter of 2020, they’ll be expected to take the German-standard Meister certification exam facilitated by EKONID.
Astra Scholarship Program
The development of the Polman Astra will have an impact on Astra’s contribution to provide scholarships to Polman Astra students. Since 2009, Astra has providing full scholarships to 35% of Polman Astra students that recruited every year. Until today, 681 students have received the scholarship.
The selection process was done by Polman Astra but some of it was also done through the collaboration of several Astra subsidiaries. One of them is collaboration with PT Astra Honda Motor (AHM), Polman Astra recruits the best students from AHM Vocational High School to join the scholarship program. Other than AHM, PT Astra Agro Lestari Tbk and PT United Tractors Tbk also collaborate with Polman Astra to provide scholarship to Polman Astra students. Astra Delta Silicon Polman campus will strengthen Astra’s passion to develop vocational education which is one of Astra’s dreams to bring prosperity to the nation