Competence of Indonesia workforce in facing liberalization

Abstract

Quality of the workforce affects the quality of construction projects. It involves the ability and competence of the construction workforce, which contributes to the success of the construction projects. The paradigm transference toward liberalization leads to opportunities for collaboration between countries, but, on the other hand, it brings about tough competition. A competent workforce will survive facing such a paradigm. As a developing country, Indonesia faces challenges in improving the abilities and competencies in the construction workforce sector. This paper reviews the existing literature to explore workforce barriers to meeting liberalization. It found that the unreadiness of the construction workforce, the lack of clarification in existing legislation, the language barrier in gaining international certification, and financial problems are the main obstacles in improving workforce competence. This paper proposes approaches to overcome the barriers: a relook at existing legislation to provide more guidance on improving workforce competency, the need for stakeholder role in improving competence workforce, and giving affordable and accessible training and education and English course to the construction workforce.