Trade union members build entrepreneurship skills for Indonesia's just energy transition

SURABAYA, East Java, Indonesia (ILO News) - Laughter, applause and lively conversations fill the training room as participants take part in role plays, pitch business ideas and exchange experiences. Icebreakers, games and group discussions replace long lectures, creating an interactive learning environment where everyone is encouraged to participate.

Behind the lively atmosphere lies a serious purpose. As Indonesia accelerates its transition towards a low-carbon economy, workers in coal-dependent industries face an uncertain future. Developing entrepreneurship skills can help workers diversify their livelihoods and seize new opportunities in emerging sectors.

© Ariel Prananda/ILO

© Ariel Prananda/ILO

To support this transition, the ILO, through its Regional Innovation Initiative for a Just Energy Transition (IKI-JET) project, partnered with the Trade Union Just Energy Transition Forum (FORJET) to organize a three-day Training of Beneficiaries on entrepreneurship in Surabaya, East Java, from 14 to 16 July.

For the 20 participating trade union members, the training is unlike any they have experienced before: interactive, engaging and built around learning from one another. By combining practical business skills with peer learning and collaboration, the ILO’s Gender and Entrepreneurship Together (GET Ahead) training equips participants with the knowledge and confidence to pursue new livelihood opportunities and better prepare for the changing world of work brought about by the just energy transition.

Elly R. Silaban, President of the Confederation of All Indonesian Trade Unions (KSBSI), underscored that a just energy transition is about creating opportunities, not only addressing challenges. She also strongly supported the training programme as a way for trade union confederations to equip workers affected by the energy transition with entrepreneurship skills and cascade the knowledge throughout their organizations.

The GET Ahead training gives workers the knowledge and confidence to start their own businesses if they need to move into new forms of employment. We are committed to cascading this knowledge throughout our confederation so that many more workers can prepare for the transition.

Elly R. Silaban, President of the Confederation of All Indonesian Trade Unions (KSBSI)

"Trade unions are key partners in supporting a fair and inclusive transition to a greener economy while ensuring that no worker is left behind during the energy transition," said Muce Mochtar, the ILO's IKI-JET Programme Coordinator. "By equipping project stakeholderswith the skills to train others, we are strengthening local ownership and ensuring that the benefits of this training continue well beyond the life of the ILO project."

© Ariel Prananda/ILO

© Ariel Prananda/ILO

The training also marked the first opportunity for trainers from the ILO's IKI-JET project in South Sumatra and East Kalimantan to deliver entrepreneurship training outside their own provinces. After completing the ILO's five-day GET Ahead Training of Trainers in April, they had previously delivered training mainly for beneficiaries in the tourism and palm oil sectors.

For Martha Indah Fajarwati, an instructor at the Vocational Training Centre of the Provincial Manpower Office of South Sumatra, facilitating the training for trade union members was a new experience. "Trade unionists are different from my previous participants. They are used to expressing their opinions," she said. "At first, I was a little nervous. But I found that the ILO's training methodology is highly effective and can easily be adapted to participants from different backgrounds."

Trade unions are key partners in supporting a fair and inclusive transition to a greener economy while ensuring that no worker is left behind during the energy transition.

Muce Mochtar, the ILO's IKI-JET Programme Coordinator

Similarly, Erny Yulianty Silalahi, an Associate Expert at the Provincial Office of Tourism and Creative Economy of East Kalimantan, who has spent 18 years designing and delivering training programmes, also needed time to adjust. "We all know that trade union activists know how to speak up," she said with a smile. "As a trainer, I needed to adapt my facilitation style to suit the participants' background."

While Martha encouraged dialogue by asking thought-provoking questions, Erny used videos, case studies and group discussions to make the sessions more engaging and interactive. Both trainers agreed that the GET Ahead methodology creates a learning environment where trainers and participants learn from one another.

As a follow-up to the training and to ensure its sustainability, the ILO's IKI-JET Project will invite six trade union representatives from FORJET to participate in the GET Ahead Training of Trainers in early August. Later that month, the project will organize a workshop to introduce the ILO's Practical Guide on Just Transition Strategies for Coal Regions in Indonesia and explore practical approaches for advancing people-centred just transition pathways in Indonesia's coal-dependent regions.