Binar Academy comes to Sinar Mas Land’s BSD City

  • Trains digital talent to meet the demands of industry
  • The year-old academy now has 10,000 students enrolled

 

(From left) Indonesian Ministry of Communication and Information Application and Information director general Semuel Abrijani; Binar Academy founder Alamanda Shantika; and Digital Hub project leader Irawan Harahap

 

YOGYAKARTA-based learning academy for tech engineers, Binar Academy opened a branch at Sinar Mas Land’s The Breeze at BSD City recently.

Having trained 400 engineers in Yogyakarta, the year-old academy now has 10,000 students enrolled. Given in a long queue, registered students are only able to start classes in April 2019.

The academy, which is widely known for its scholarship programme, is expanding to target the younger generation in the Greater Jakarta area and Yogyakarta to study coding.

Founded by former Go-jek vice president of product Alamanda Shantika, Binar Academy has developed digital talent communities in Bandung, Batam, Semarang, Kupang, and Ambon.

Seeing the enthusiasm of young people outside Yogyakarta, the idea for this expansion was initiated and received a positive response from Sinar Mas Land.

Alamanda said, “With Sinar Mas Land’s assistance, we can be present at BSD City. We and Sinar Mas Land have the same vision, to continue to support digitalisation in Indonesia, Sinar Mas Land is also building an area called Digital Hub in BSD. So, as one of the startups engaged in digital education, we can provide a talent pool to complement the existing ecosystems in BSD City.”

BSD City is currently transforming into an integrated smart digital city. In addition, Sinar Mas Land is also developing a 25-hectare ‘Digital Hub’ in BSD City. The area is meant to gather business people in the IT and digital technology sectors in Indonesia.

Alamanda said Indonesian startups’ needs and the availability of digital talent is not balanced within the fast-growing digital ecosystem.

“Looking at the needs of startups in Jakarta, especially those unicorns who face difficulty in getting digital talent, we want to be able to play an active role by providing quality digital talent, ranging from software engineers and product designers, to product owners.”

Through one of its products, namely Binar Career Hub, Binar Academy channels its graduates to work in startups. With a business model like this, the cycle of empowering human resources in the field of technology can be increased evenly.

Starting in the fourth quarter of 2018, Binar Academy offers academic programmes for scholarships, Binar Masterclass which is intended for manager-level staff, Binar Plus, an extensive education programme that enables students to learn from zero to the release of an application.

“Not just being a talent provider, we also created new programmes to cultivate existing talents with skills and behaviour. And we want to continue being able to support the development of startups in Indonesia as a whole.”

In line with Sinar Mas Land's vision to build an integrated smart digital city in Indonesia, the presence of Binar Academy complements the digital ecosystem that is being developed at Digital Hub, BSD City.

Sinar Mas Land’s Digital Hub project leader Irawan Harahap said, “Although it is relatively new, Binar Academy’s track record is said to be capable of producing quality digital talent, because the teaching staff come from the industry, so the academy nurtures talents according to industry needs.

“We hope that with the presence of Binar Academy, digital technology players in Indonesia will get the knowledge, experience, and behaviour needed to drive economic and scientific progress in the field of digital technology. We also hope that these academies will function as creators of IT talent needed by companies, both startups and large technology companies in the BSD City Digital Hub area.”

The vision of Sinar Mas Land is driven by a strong desire to support the government's efforts to prepare Indonesia for the digital era and competition for digital competencies with other countries.

Binar Academy as a means of digital education will be a provider of digital talent for IT companies that will have offices at the Digital Hub and BSD City.

The role of the Binar Academy in the Digital Hub is vital given the increasing need for digital talent to meet the growing demands of the digital industry in Indonesia.

 

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