A total of 62 young lecturers from Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia (UPI) participated in a Technical Guidance and Certification activity organized by the National Certification Agency for Small and Medium Enterprises (BNSP) on the Supporting SMEs Scheme. The goal of this program is to improve the university’s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and to obtain a competency certificate.
The program was also attended by lecturers from Universitas Kristen Maranatha and Universitas INABA. It took place in the Auditorium on the 6th floor of the FPEB Building on the UPI campus on Dr. Setiabudhi Street, Bandung, on Wednesday and Thursday (5-6/04/2023).
Prof. Dr. Amir Machmud, S.E., M.Si., the person in charge of UPI’s KPI achievement for Indicator 4, stated that “the program was open to anyone, but the information was not widely disseminated, so the participants from other universities were those who had a concern and were part of the SME development research team. Two lecturers from Universitas Kristen Maranatha, one from INABA, and the rest were from UPI.”
Prof. Amir added that the target was for every lecturer to have at least one competency certificate. With 1,465 lecturers at UPI, having just one certification would already record 1,465 competencies, resulting in a high or gold standard for Indicator 4.
He explained that the target for this year was for 60% of UPI lecturers to have a competency certificate since there was funding available from the Higher Education Endowment Fund (DAPT) and other sources. UPI has always supported this program with funding from the university, faculties, and study programs.
Prof. Amir emphasized that SMEs in Indonesia are the largest sector in the economy, and not all SMEs are independent and still need guidance, especially from academicians.
“This is one of UPI’s concerns for SMEs,” he said.
He added that the program was designed to achieve the Key Performance Indicators, particularly Indicator 4, which is about practitioners teaching on campus. One of the indicators is the number of lecturers who have professional competency certifications issued by associations.
Prof. Amir emphasized that anyone could become an SME mentor, regardless of their academic background. However, technical guidance is necessary to learn how to mentor SMEs professionally since everyone meets SMEs and wants to optimize them.
