Menteri Ketenagakerjaan RI Hanif Dhakiri berfoto bersama Dewan Pembina UID, Cherie Nursalim, I Gede Ardika dan Jatna Supriatna, Ketua Umum UID, Mari Pangestu, Rektor Universitas Paramadina, Firmanzah, serta para peserta Co-Class.

The Minister of Manpower, Muhammad Hanif Dhakiri gave his appreciation on Collaborative Creative Learning and Action for Sustainable Solution (Co-CLASS) program which is jointly organized by the Ministry of Manpower in cooperation with Yayasan Upaya Indonesia Damai or also known as United in Diversity (UID), Tsinghua University and Universitas Paramadina . Co-CLASS is a manifestation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) of the Ministry of Manpower, UID and Tsinghua University which was signed in November 2016. The MoU stated the agreement on the three parties cooperation in enhancing the collective leadership capacity of the tri-sector of business, government and civil society so as to overcome the challenges in employment in the future.

 "I am quite surprised of the results of this Co-CLASS program because although it only lasted for approximately five months, the program has succeeded in undertaking a very important mental reform to generate real action in realizing a sovereign, self-sustaining, and based on trust and gotng royong principle, "Hanif said when giving his statement during first class Co-CLASS graduation event on Saturday (4/11), at the Indonesian Ministry of Manpower Office, Jakarta.

This program has been held since mid-June, covering 6 workshops: orientation workshop, foundation workshop, sensing workshop, deep dive workshop, prototyping workshop and last on 3-4 November, the final workshop and graduation event. The lessons learned during Co-CLASS focus on increasing the capacity of leaders in the 21st century include hardskill with emphasis on softskill skills, namely: (1) sharing vision; (2) making strategic decisions; (3) developing self-awareness; (4) building relationships; and (5) becoming human learning

"We are very happy, we can feel the spirit of gotong-royong in every prototype idea displayed in this room. We are optimistic that with mutual trust across sectors, governments-civil society Indonesian will be able to pass the challenge by turning them into opportunities. And that's the main reason why we set up this UID organization, "says UID founder Cherie Salim

This Co-CLASS program was initially followed by 32 participants who was shortlisted from 69 people. They consist of 16 participants from Ministry of Manpower (KEMNAKER) employees from 7 units of echelon I and BNSP consisting of 3 Echelon II and 13 staffs or Echelon IV. There are also 5 people from labor unions, 5 from NGOs, 5 from business and 1 from academia. During this learning  journey, 6 people withdrew so that only 26 people follow to completion.

In its implementation, participants were asked to form 4 working groups that explore different issues in the labor system. Group 1, calling themselves McGyver, raises the issue about the protection of Indonesian migrant workers, then group 2 with the name Vocational Enrichment Training Transformers (VETTs) focus on issues about labor competency gap with industry needs closely related to efforts to confront the ASEAN Economic Community (MEA ). While Group 3 calling itself Caterpillar with the focus issue about the quality of employment public service in the Ministry of Manpower; and Group 4 calling themselves the Masa Kini Masa Gitu (MKMG) which focus on issues about social protection or security for informal workers.

As one participant admitted, Sumiyati, Secretary of the National Workers Union, "I was at first unconvinced that the program was a serious program and able to facilitate trade unions, business sectors, governments, NGOs and academics to sit together to discuss employment issues. However, I was wrong. I admit that this program has changed the way I think and act, and opened new perspectives for things that I have always believed were true.”

Co-CLASS learning method is designed to open the participants' insight not only to the current situation, but also able to build a shared vision of the employment system as what the tri-sector desirable. In addition, through the learning process, participants are able to build cross-cutting relationships based on mutual trust to enable collaboration and synergy to create sustainable development for Indonesia.

President of UID, Prof. Dr. Mari Elka Pangestu said that Co-CLASS is very flexible so that it can be applied to various issues, because the substance of the learning is to invite participants to think openly, fully present and fully aware in every activity, and as a leader they are invited to do sensing. "Looking at the results, we hope that Co-CLASS can be continued and can be developed to other sectors so that the process of mental revolution that becomes one of the spirit of the current government can be achieved," said Mari.