Astra Manufacturing Polytechnic Graduates 177 Associate Experts

Jakarta, Tuesday, October 30, 2018 at the Sasana Kriya Building, Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII) East Jakarta, Astra Manufacturing Polytechnic (Polman Astra) held its XIX Graduation Ceremony. In this Graduation, 177 students class 2015 from 16 Provinces throughout Indonesia graduated as Associate Experts. The graduation was opened by the Chairman of the Board of Management of the Asra Bina Ilmu Foundation (YABI), Hamdhani Dzulkarnaen with Director of Polman Astra, Tony Harley Silalahi, and also attended by the Head of the Region III Higher Education Service Institution, Dr. Ir. Illah Saillah, MS., Astra’s Executive Board, Board of Trustees, Supervisory Board, YABI Board of Management, and Astra Polman Management Board and Representatives from Industry and Higher Education and other invitations.

Of the 177 graduates, 32.77% or 58 students are recipients of achievement scholarships given by the Astra Bina Ilmu Foundation. Scholarships is given by freeing the tuition fees and monthly allowances. About 7 students received full tuition assistance from PT Astra Agro Lestari, Tbk., 18 students received scholarships from the Astra Honda Motor Foundation; 24 students received scholarships from Rachmat A&A Services through PT. Daya Adicipta Motora; 15 students received Kopertis scholarships (now Higher Education Service Institution), 13 students received scholarships from the Amaliyah Astra Foundation (Lazis).

Scholarships from various institutions show the support from various parties to develop the competence of the young generation. The achievement scholarships from Astra is consistently given every year through the Astra Bina Ilmu Foundation (YABI) as Astra’s commitment to improve the industry through the development of human resources that needed by the manufacturing industry, natural resource processing, automotive and information technology.

Another Astra’s commitment in vocational higher education is the development of the Astra Polman Campus by purchasing 5 hectares of land in Cikarang. The planning is still ongoing, hopefully the physical construction will soon be done. With this new campus, Polman Astra keeps push themselves to develop their capabilities.

Another Astra’s commitment is also manifested in the implementation of the Astra dual system collaborating the Astra industry, which are providing the industrial internship in the Astra Industry as a place for students to do their final projects. This year, student internships are spread across 25 Astra Group companies and 1 SME under the Dharma Bhakti Astra Foundation and 1 Foundation. During internships, students make the final project by implementing the technology and engineering they learned, to ensure that the technical and non-technical competencies they have learned will give benefit to the industry. The benefits of the final project are calculated as Net Quality Income (NQI), the calculation that has to be approved by industry mentors. In 2018, the NQI that had been verified was Rp. 159 billion and if all reports have been verified, the NQI total is estimated to reach almost Rp. 200 billion.

To improve the quality of graduates and strengthen the implementation of Tri-Dharma of universities, Polman Astra is collaborating with domestic and foreign institutions. Recently Polman Astra is developing various collaborative programs with various institutions from Germany, the National Institute of Technology (KOSEN) from Japan, and the South East Asia Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) in vocational higher education collaboration in the Southeast Asia.

In this graduation, for the first time Polman Astra graduated Automotive Engineering Study Program students who received a German standard automotive engineering competency certificate approved by the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Deutscher Industrie und Handelskammertag, or DIHK). Curriculum development based on DIKHK standards has been developed since 2015 through a collaboration between Polman Astra and EKONID. This certainly added value for graduates in the industry because it can be used as prove of higher level of competence. The number of graduates works in the industry is one of indicators to determine the quality of vocational education. Almost 90% of Polman Astra Polman Astra graduates working in the industry, some of them are continuing their studies and running a business.

In his speech, Tony Harley Silalahi, Director of Polman Astra encourage the graduates to keep learning either through workplace training, higher education, or independent study. “In the midst of science and technology that continues to grow, many things that once considered as great, now become sommething common. We should keep learning and develop superior competencies and characters to stay relevant in the future,” Tony said to the graduates.

Johannes Loman, Chairman of the YABI Board of Trustees, through a speech read by Hamdhani Dzulkarnaen Salim, wish that Polman Astra graduates will contribute to achieving the Astra Company’s goal on becoming a “Pride of the Nation” in 2020.