Batam, Indonesia - 22 February 2023: IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced the opening of the IBM Academy for Hybrid Cloud and AI to help accelerate Indonesia’s Digital Economy Roadmap aspirations to be at the forefront of tech and professional technical skills development in Southeast Asia. McKinsey estimated that Indonesia stands to gain an estimated four million to 23 million jobs by 2030 from the transition to digital technologies like automation with concerted effort from all stakeholders in the ecosystem to provide the workforce with the appropriate job-ready skills.

The Academy, located at the Nongsa Digital Park and operated by Infinite Learning, a PT Kinema Systrans Multimedia division, will offer courses in AI, hybrid cloud and cybersecurity from IBM SkillsBuild and Red Hat programs. Unlike asynchronous e-learning courses that target mass students, the 5-month-long pilot courses will bring unique opportunity to students to learn in-demand skills through 100% instructor-led classes and hands-on workshops, plus a 6-week onsite training with direct real-life insights and experience from regional industry and tech experts. 

The Academy will welcome its first batch of students beginning March 6. Curriculum offered by the Academy will also be part of the Ministry of Education’s Kampus Merdeka program available to all university students across Indonesia. 

“Improvement of job-ready skills is expected to boost Indonesia’s digital transformation. The government, industry and academia need to collaborate to help the country improve the availability of key tech skills and realize the value from the digital economy underpinned by Hybrid Cloud and AI,” said Paul Burton, General Manager, IBM Asia Pacific. “Indonesia has one of the youngest populations in ASEAN. By providing the next generation workforce with the job-ready skills, the initiative will augment the nation’s agenda to equip its talent and speed up competitive advantage in an increasingly digital world.”

Students in this first batch will have access – at no cost – to the Red Hat Certified System Administration course, IBM SkillsBuild industry-standard AI and Cybersecurity courses, hands-on labs, case studies and digital credentials. The final individual student capstone project and examination will be key to ensure that students possess the qualified job-ready technical and professional skills in alignment with market needs. Successful students will receive industry-recognized certifications upon graduation.

Following the pilot phase, the Academy will collaborate, starting with seven leading universities to scale the hot-skills curriculum – from machine learning, foundational AI, cloud architecture, cybersecurity engineering, network security, zero trust architecture, to Red Hat systems administration – to a wider group of students. The Academy also plans to collaborate with more universities and scale to thousands of learners within the next three years.

"One of the objectives of Kampus Merdeka (Emancipated Campus) policy is to build a forward-looking workforce in Indonesia to meet increasing demand in digital economy,” said Nadiem Makarim, Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology, Indonesia. “The collaboration with industry frontrunners like IBM will help groom our digital talent and better prepare students for jobs of the future.”

“The Nongsa Digital Park is well equipped with tech infrastructure to support the country’s ICT sector and serve as a hub for a digital-economy ecosystem in Indonesia and beyond,” said Muhammad Rudi, Chief of BP Batam and Mayor of Batam. “The presence of the IBM Academy for Hybrid Cloud and AI in our thriving industrial boomtown would help achieve Indonesia’s priority to narrow the digital talent gap of nine million skilled workforce by 2030. Moreover, the Academy’s favourable location and proximity to Singapore, which is the regional headquarters to many tech giants including IBM Asia Pacific, augurs well for Batam.” 

# # #

For more information, visit www.ibm.com.