Indonesia encourages tourism school graduates to become entrepreneurs

   “I want 10 percent of graduates from tourism higher education institutions that are under the Tourism Ministry to be taught to become entrepreneurs,” said Tourism Minister Arief Yahya. (Shutterstock/File)

  Tourism Minister Arief Yahya gave a speech in which he encouraged tourism school graduates to become entrepreneurs at the groundbreaking ceremony of Palembang Tourism State Polytechnic on May 31.
   “I want 10 percent of graduates from tourism higher education institutions that are under the Tourism Ministry to be taught to become entrepreneurs,” said Arief.
   “I will guide you so that you can compete in tourism. I will make a business incubator for students who want to start a business,” he added.
   Arief said all tourism school graduates would gain employment in the tourist industry, with 40 percent of them receiving offers abroad.
In his speech, the minister also talked about three important points regarding tourism state polytechnic.
   The first point was about using a global standard for the tourism state polytechnic, “At the very least, use a certified Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) or ASEAN regional standard so that graduates can work in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and other countries,” said Yahya.
He suggested using UNWTO.TedQual Certification issued by The United Nations World Tourism Organization.
   The second point was for Palembang Tourism State Polytechnic to offer a sports major, “I especially ask for Palembang to open a sports event or sports tourism study program since North Sumatra has been officiated as a sports tourism province,” he said.
   In the last point of his speech, the minister encouraged students to become entrepreneurs. There are already 21,000 interested applicants who want to apply to the school, however, it can only accept 3,000 students.
   “Recently there were 4,000 students who graduated from Bandung Institute of Tourism, a job fair was held offering 15,000 jobs. The amount of job opportunities are far greater than the number of graduates,” said Yahya.
   “You will 100 percent get a job if you want to become an employee. I just want 10 percent of you to work on your own as an entrepreneur,” he added.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/travel/2017/06/02/tourism-minister-encourages-tourism-school-graduates-to-become-entrepreneurs.html