Banyan Global leads the five-year, $6.9 million United States Agency for International Development-funded Partnerships for Productivity (USAID PADU) activity in Indonesia, aimed at boosting the nation’s competitiveness and fostering sustainable economic growth. Operating across the provinces of Banten, East Java, North Sumatra, and South Sulawesi, with national-level collaborations in Jakarta, this pivotal activity enhances market-driven vocational training through strategic private-sector partnerships.

Banyan Global and its local partners are providing technical and advisory services to support government-owned vocational training programs, also known as Balai Latihan Kerja (BLKs) to enhance private-sector partnerships to improve workforce readiness with a strong focus on inclusive participation across all initiatives.

USAID PADU’s objectives are:

• Objective 1: Strengthen partnerships between private sector and BLKs to implement market-driven and inclusive vocational training programs.
• Objective 2: Improve BLKs strategic partnership capacity to implement market-driven and inclusive vocational training programs.

USAID PADU’s Private Sector Partnership strategy is designed to be both replicable and scalable, focusing on building technical and mentorship capacity of select Ministry of Manpower’s anchor BLKs to serve as knowledge hubs for replication efforts to provincial and district-level BLKs. The Activity initially launched in Jakarta, East Java, and North Sumatra, the program is set to expand to South Sulawesi and Banten by 2025.

In a significant development for nationwide partnerships, USAID PADU brokered a strategic collaboration between the Ministry of Manpower and Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) Indonesian partner, Orbit Futures Academy. This partnership integrates the AWS re/Start program—a cloud computing training program—into the BLK system. This partnership enhances the vocational training landscape significantly, preparing instructors and learners alike for critical roles in the digital economy and facilitating connections with potential employers.