Accelerating Work Achievement and Readiness for Employment (AWARE3)

Challenge

Indonesia’s economy and demand for labor is evolving, with employment shifting away from rural agricultural jobs to urban service-oriented jobs. Consequently, there is a need to equip the Indonesian economy to effectively prepare for the transformation of labor as emerging technologies play a more significant role in the workplace. The Government of Indonesia believes that through workforce development programs, sekolah menengah kejuruan (SMKs; vocational schools) will play a pivotal role in preparing the current and future workforce.

Funded as a Global Development Alliance between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and J.P. Morgan, the AWARE3 project will improve the employment pathways for SMK-enrolled youth through soft skills training, enhanced teacher training, and meaningful school-industry partnerships that lead to work-based learning opportunities. Activities take place remotely, although in a dynamic way that facilitates active learning. Partnering with the Jakarta Education Agency, Matata, and a host of local public and private sector partners, the project aims to prepare Indonesian youth for the digital economy.

Key Activities

AWARE3 activities include the following:

• Develop and adapt EDC’s Work Ready Now (WRN) soft skills training modules to train and build the capacity of school managers and teachers.
• Implement WRN skills training curriculum through virtual classrooms for SMK youth in grade 11 to learn and improve their technical and soft skills to prepare them for the digital economy.
• Develop a mentoring and coaching plan to engage school managers and teachers throughout the WRN implementation process.
• Collaborate with private sector partners to develop a virtual work-based learning toolkit. Design and implement virtual work-based learning and project-based internships to nurture work readiness.
• Facilitate interactions between the education sector and the private sector around timely workforce development and employability.

Our Impact

Throughout the life of the project, AWARE3 aims to:

• Train 40 coaches/school coordinators in the adapted AWARE3 program
• Train over 200 teachers in the adapted AWARE3 WRN curriculum
• Facilitate the development of over 80 Google classrooms created for teacher‑student engagement on soft skills for the digital economy
• Enroll and train over 5,000 youth in WRN technical and soft skills
• Engage 60 private sector partners through virtual work-based learning, internships, and other collaboration and learning opportunities