Ruangguru Becomes Pre-employment Card Program-partner

Now, it is Ruangguru’s turn to respond to these pros and cons, especially regarding the pre-employment card program. Ruangguru is indeed involved in implementing the pre-employment card program, whose budget reaches IDR 20 trillion nationally. On the one hand, Ruangguru CEO Adamas Belva Syah Devara also served as the president’s special staff.

The conflict of interests of President Joko Widodo’s Special Staff (Jokowi) has recently been widely discussed, because of the letter from Amartha’s CEO Andi Taufan Garuda Putra regarding the Village Volunteer Against Covid-19 program is widely circulating.

The president’s special staff, who also served as higher-ups in the startup like that, became polemic. Mainly after Andi, Amartha’s CEO as well as the president’s special staff, sent a letter with the letter of the Cabinet Secretariat to the sub-districts head about his company’s involvement in the Lawan Covid-19 Village Volunteer program.

Responding to this, Belva emphasized that she did not participate in any decision regarding the pre-employment card program. The size of the budget and mechanism are determined directly by the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs. Likewise with the determination of partners.

There Are 7 Other Startups Involved in the Pre-employment Card Program

Besides Skill Academy by Ruangguru, there are seven startups involved in providing training related to the pre-employment card program. Among them, Tokopedia, Bukalapak, Want to Learn What, HarukaEdu, PijarMahir, Sekolah.mu and Sisnaker.

Skill Academy is Ruangguru’s newest platform which contains hundreds of training materials and courses in the form of video classes, which can be accessed using the internet.

Therefore, he stated that it was not true that the policy of the pre-employment program benefited one party. “Because the process is clear and the number of partners is large at the moment, with a total of 2,000 more classes from various fields,” he said.

Ruangguru’s Director of Products and Partnership, Iman Usman, also revealed that he decided on cooperation with the government, not Belva.

Iman said, eight digital platforms including Ruangguru were chosen as partners because they were considered to be eligible. The appointment mechanism and its requirements are determined by the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs and the Project Management Office (PMO) of the Work Card.

The eight startups that became partners, including Ruangguru, were only for the initial stages. “On various occasions, the government also mentioned that in the future several platforms could also continue to grow,” Iman said.

The Pre-employment Card Is Government Assistance to the Community Who Is Free to Choose Its Services

The pre-employment card program is the help given by the government to the community. Therefore, citizens can choose various items on the platform that meet the requirements and can be adjusted according to user preferences. Users have the freedom to choose which services to choose from.

He also emphasized that the Skill Academy from Ruangguru, as a government partner, was not born because of the pre-employment card program. This brand-new platform has long been studied and developed by the company. As a pre-employment card partner, Ruangguru opens partnerships with various training providers.

Ruangguru submitted a curation effort to the PMO, whether the training class was considered to meet the criteria or not. So far, more than 2,000 classes have been approved. Even so, the position of the high-ranking in the startups as well as the president’s special staff has reaped the pros and cons.

Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) has asked President Jokowi to dismiss special staff’s members who use their positions to gain personal benefits or certain groups’.

Then, immediately evaluate the performance and position of special staff. “Also taking steps to dismiss staff who have positions or positions in other places that have the potential to cause conflicts of interest,” ICW wrote in its official statement yesterday.

Democratic Party Wasekjen Rachland Nasidik also mentioned Ruangguru who was a partner of the pre-employment card program. Rachland rate, the budget prepared is quite large and can be contested by eight partner platforms. “So, if divided, each applicator has the potential to reap IDR 700 billion,” he said.