To support students’ career preparation and competency development in the field of technology, the Indonesian Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (Kemendikbudristek) designed a collaborative program Kampus Merdeka with Google, Gojek, Tokopedia, Traveloka, and university partners that provides opportunities for 3,000 selected students. Universitas Indonesia (UI) as one of Kemendikbudristek’s higher education partners supporting the career preparation program, launched the Bangkit 2023 Program for undergraduate or postgraduate students of all majors in Indonesia who want to hone their digital skills.
The Bangkit Google program is one of the Merdeka Belajar activities which is a flagship of the Directorate of General of Higher Education, Research and Technology, for the Certified Independent Study category with a learning load equivalent to 20 Semester Credit Units (SKS) or around 900 cumulative hours. The topics organized to build innovation competencies and expertise in the field of Information Technology consist of three streams, namely: Cloud Computing, Machine Learning (Artificial Intelligence), and Mobile Computing. These competencies are supported by practitioners from Google in collaboration with its partners including GoTo (Gojek- Tokopedia), Traveloka, and Dicoding. In addition to improving student skills, the Bangkit program also aims to equip students to build their careers in Information Technology through various activities including Capstone Projects, Career Fair, Global Certification, and even start-up funding for selected Capstone project works. Until now, Universitas Indonesia is trusted as the incubation center of a total of 3 start-ups resulting from Capstone Bangkit.
The birth of the Bangkit program began with Google’s interaction with universities, which was then encouraged by the Director General of Diktiristek, which became one of the initial flagships of the Merdeka Learning Campus Merdeka (MBKM) activity. On various occasions, the Indonesian Minister of Education, Culture, Research and Technology, Nadiem Anwar Makarim, gave an example of this Bangkit Program as a form of increasing the relevance of industry 4.0 capabilities at the higher education level which was launched in early 2021; and is a program flagship MBKM Dikti which was first held nationally after previously going through the pilot program process in 2020.
After two successful years, the Bangkit 2023 program will increase the capacity and partners of the program, providing a great opportunity for students to build their competencies in information technology with global technology companies such as Google and its partners. However, the level of competition in the Bangkit program will also increase.
There are five benefits that can be obtained by prospective participants by participating in the Bangkit 2023 program; (1) Curriculum and industrial infrastructure; (2) Conversion up to 20 credits; (3) Via career fair, achieve a successful career in IT companies; (4) Global certification from Google; and (5) funds of IDR 140,000,000 and mentors for start up candidates.
The procedures for participating in the Bangkit 2023 Program, especially for Universitas Indonesia students, are (1) Prospective participants visit the CIL website to view information and registration links related to registration for the Bangkit Program (2023) through the website https://cil.ui.ac.id/ ; (2) After the prospective participants access the link on the http://registration.bangkit.academy/ UI CIL Website, the prospective participants can get the complete information and registration guidance related to the Bangkit 2023 Program.
The registration process for the Bangkit 2023 program includes; (1) Registering yourself with the details needed to verify the eligibility of prospective participants; (2) Re-register and send a letter of commitment, prospective participants who have met the requirements will receive an email containing an administrative template and instructions to be sent; (3) Take an assessment test by accessing technology and personality tests after completing the administrative steps; (4) Register on the Merdeka Campus platform to complete registration; (5) After completing registration, prospective participants are expected to wait for the announcement by checking email for further information regarding registration results, next steps, and important dates from the Bangkit team.
Based on the implementation of the Bangkit Program in the previous year, the Director of the Center for Independent Learning (CIL) UI, F. Astha Ekadiyanto, S.T., M.Sc. said, “The number of applicants nationally continues to increase from 28,738 applicants (2021), to 48,720 applicants (2022). This means that it can be estimated that the 2023 Bangkit Program registrants will double at least twice as much as last year. Meanwhile, applicants from UI (2022) reached more than 1,000 students, which is among the universities with the most applicants and accepted approximately 141 students. It is expected that in the 2023 Bangkit Program the number of applicants and accepted, especially from the University of Indonesia, in the program can continue to increase,” said Astha.
