Improve access to and boost demand for tech mentoring

Policies Involved

Innovation

Government Regulation on Tech Mentorship

Challenge

There is a lack of qualified mentors available in Indonesia to nurture and develop tech talent. Mentorships offer a number of benefits, but most pressingly it could help close the gap between the demand and supply of: 1.) Tech talent with niche or advanced skills, 2.) Tech talent in senior or managerial positions. Having practitioners as mentors can equip the mentees with higher-level tech and business skills that are often not found in educational programs. Moreover, the mentors themselves may benefit by improving their communications and leadership skills, both of which are essential to advance one's career.

Current Policy

Mentorship offers tech talent the opportunity to connect with a more experienced person, who can act as a sounding board and offer constructive feedback to help them further develop their skills and career. However, digital skills shortage in Indonesia means that there is a limited number of senior mentors who can offer guidance to junior tech talent in their areas of expertise. To ease the short-term hiring of skilled foreign workers, the recently issued Government Regulation No. 34 of 2021 on Foreign Workers Utilization and Ministry of Manpower Regulation No. 8 of 2021 on the Employment of Foreign Workers removed the requirement of obtaining a Foreign Worker Utilization Plan (Rencana Penggunaan Tenaga Kerja Asing, or RPTKA) approval from the Ministry of Manpower for technology startups seeking to hire foreign workers for less than three months. A fly-in, fly-out approach can help local tech startups access overseas mentors with specialized skills on a temporary basis.

At the same time, although a number of individual tech startups have implemented their own in-house tech mentorship and knowledge sharing programs, a specific government policy that promotes an industry-wide mentoring network is currently absent. This creates fragmentation in opportunities among junior tech talent, in particular those who are employed by smaller or less visible startups.

Action

Stimulating demand for and improving access to mentoring both in DKI Jakarta - where the majority tech startups are based - and across the country can help to prepare the next generation of tech talent¹. This can be achieved in several ways, for instance by recruiting and training practitioners to become volunteer mentors; articulating the benefits of mentoring to the industry and the individual careers of both the mentors and mentees; incentivizing and aligning with business-led mentoring programs (for example, by encouraging startups to develop volunteer tech mentoring programs as part of their human resource strategy); providing recognition for the contributions of mentors through monetary and non-monetary rewards; and facilitating access to remote or online mentoring to promote flexibility. While the government holds the crucial role of facilitating and creating the suitable enabling environment, it is crucial that tech talent mentoring is industry-led and not dictated by the government.

action points

parties involved

Recruit and train local mentors

Ministry of Communications and Informatics

Office of Communication, Informatics, and Statistics DKI Jakarta

Jakarta Smart City

Tech Community (Startups, Enablers, Investors, others)

Recruit overseas mentors

Ministry of Manpower

Tech Community (Startups, Enablers, Investors, others)

Raise awareness of the benefits of mentorship

Ministry of Communications and Informatics

Office of Communication, Informatics, and Statistics DKI Jakarta

Jakarta Smart City

Tech Community (Startups, Enablers, Investors, others)

Incentivize and align with business-led mentoring programs

Ministry of Communications and Informatics

Office of Communication, Informatics, and Statistics DKI Jakarta

Jakarta Smart City

Tech Community (Startups, Enablers, Investors, others)

Incentivize mentors through monetary and non-monetary rewards

Ministry of Communications and Informatics

Ministry of Finance and other relevant ministries

Provincial Government of DKI Jakarta

Tech Community (Startups, Enablers, Investors, others)

Facilitate ‘match-making’ and access to online portal

Ministry of Communications and Informatics

Office of Communication, Informatics, and Statistics DKI Jakarta

Jakarta Smart City

Mentors

Indicator of Success

Number of high skilled mentors

Number of mentorship programs

Participating companies’ time to hire

Participating companies’ quality of hire

Provide non-monetary incentives for potential students to study tech

The Pros and Cons of Running a Startup in Indonesia in 2021. https://greenhouse.co/blog/challenges-running-startups-indonesia/

Quantitative Demographics

Gender Distribution

Highest Education Attainment

Owner's Age

Marital status

Number of Dependent(s)

Qualitative Demographics

Education

Gender

SEC

Industry

Size

Age

Codesign Demographics

Gender Distribution

Category Distribution

Improve access to and boost demand for tech mentoring

Policies Involved

Challenge

Current Policy

Action

Indicator of Success

Provide non-monetary incentives for potential students to study tech

Produce tech talent through the formal education system