MITRA 5.0: Collaboration between Monash University, Indonesia and Traveloka in Developing Digital Talent

Jakarta, 18 July 2022 - Monash University, Indonesia along with Traveloka, through Traveloka Academy, have officially wrapped up the first phase of a digital capacity development program, MITRA 5.0, on Friday, July 8th, 2022. MITRA 5.0 program was conducted for four weeks, starting from June 17th, 2022, and participated by over 60 lecturers from universities across Indonesia, namely Universitas Indonesia, IPB University, Universitas Diponegoro, Universitas Islam Negeri (UIN) Syarif Hidayatullah, Universitas Bina Nusantara, among others. Throughout the program, the lecturers learnt about the product development process from the perspective of data science, technicality, digital product design, and product management.

The MITRA 5.0 program was designed based on the requirements of digital talent in Indonesia, whereas at the national level, at least 50% of the workforce is recorded to equip only basic and middle digital skills. While talents with advanced skills only represent less than 1% of the Indonesian workforce.

Prof. Ir. Nizam, M.Sc., DIC, Ph.D., IPU, Asean Eng., Director General of Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Culture - Research and Technology, Republic of Indonesia, delivered his appreciation to the two organizations that have concluded the MITRA 5.0 program, “Thank you and congratulations to Monash University, Indonesia and Traveloka that have co-designed the MITRA 5.0 program, aiming to share additional competence in various fields related to the current information technology. Hopefully the program is able to upgrade the lecturers and universities’ capacity in developing academic competence by utilizing real industry cases. Through the penta helix collaboration between university, industry, government, public, and media, we anticipate an upstreaming and downstreaming from research and development in university, as well as the learning process in the universities.

Professor Andrew MacIntyre, President, Monash University, Indonesia stated, “Monash University, Indonesia’s mission and objective is to encourage various sustainable initiatives to the nation’s development. Through the MITRA 5.0 program, in collaboration with Traveloka, we have a mission to increase lecturers’ capacity across Indonesia. On behalf of Monash University, Indonesia, I am grateful for all the involved stakeholders. I hope the program is able to inspire and equip the lecturers in producing digital talents that excel and be able to compete in fulfilling the industry requirements, especially in the technology industry for Indonesia’s development.”

MITRA 5.0 is a development program in human resource and innovation in technology targeting to equip lecturers in Indonesia with real study cases from the technology industry. Besides, this program with a mission to support the government's agenda in achieving nine million digital talent by 2030, also shares world-class knowledge to the lecturers to ensure that academia stays relevant to the evolving technology development. The program benefits Indonesian lecturers, especially those who are actively involved and contribute in bridging the gap between the technology industry needs of excellent university graduates.

The potential of Indonesia’s digital economy valuation is projected to reach IDR 4,531 trillion or equivalent to USD 315.5 billion by 2030. Considering the massive potential growth in the technology industry in the past decade, innovation in digital product development has increased and contributed significantly to digital economic growth, which positioned Indonesia in the global technology market.

The opportunity needs to be supported by an exceptional digital talent pool, and Indonesia requires more digital talent, especially in reaching Indonesia’s government goal for nine million digital talent by 2030.

Ellen Tuwaidan, Chief People Officer, Traveloka, appreciated the collaboration between Traveloka and Monash University, Indonesia in the first phase, MITRA 5.0. “Through MITRA 5.0, Monash University, Indonesia and Traveloka Academy work together in supporting Indonesia’s government by developing a capacity building program to equip academics in producing exceptional digital talent that is relevant to the technology industry needs,” explained Ellen. Moreover, Ellen shared her congratulations and wishes to MITRA 5.0, “Congratulations to all participants, we wish that all the knowledge and best practice that gained from the program can be delivered to the respective academic community.”

Throughout the four weeks program, the participants that consist of academician from universities across Indonesia in Engineering / Computer Science / Information Technology (including Data Science); Business and Economy / Social Science and Design gained the knowledge that is expected to bridge the gap between technology industry and academic field, which comprises:

Furthermore, several MITRA 5.0 participants shared their testimonial after the collaboration program ended. Ova Chandra Dewi, Head of Urban and Regional Planning Master Program, Engineering Faculty, Universitas Indonesia, said “The MITRA 5.0 program was participated by lecturers from diverse backgrounds, from both inside and outside of our network so we can help those who came from outside of Java Island. Besides, the program is interdisciplinary, so the mutual learning helps me and the other participants a lot.”

“I hope there will be a continuity between the collaboration of Monash University, Indonesia, Traveloka, and Universitas Hasanuddin, so we can fulfill Indonesia’s digital talent target by 2030. I also wish that the participants from MITRA 5.0 can develop further in the future, so we can share our advanced knowledge to our students,” stated Muhammad Junaid, Lecturers from Universitas Hasanuddin Makassar.